Ann Marie Stone - Secondary Language Arts

Interactive Fiction and Transmedia Stories

2011-11-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

The Search for WondLa

Annette Lamb's article “ReadingRedefined for a Transmedia Universe” in November's Learning andLeading delivered the best news of the new millennium for me: theChoose Your Own Adventure series from the 1980s is back as aniPhone/iPad app! As a child of the 80s, I reveled in the power ofdirecting a character's destiny through a story, and I still creditthose simple, enchanting books with influencing my penchant forcreative writing. How exciting that these stories can now beaugmented by pictures, maps, music, video and animation.

Lamb's article explores five electronicreading environments that challenge traditional definitions of“reading” and “book.” The Choose Your Own Adventure seriesand the online novel 253 by Geoff Ryman are examples of hypertext andinteractive fiction. In addition to e-books, interactive storybooks,and reference databases, Lamb also addresses some of the excitingpossibilities transmedia storytelling offers to students. Transmediastorytelling is a multimodal, multimedia narrative with nonlinear,participatory elements. Students might encounter anything from maps,web-based clues, mobile apps, social media connections, games, video,or animation as resources connected to the story. Check out The Search for WondLa as a lovely example of transmedia storytelling.

Our students are navigating a brave newworld of digital reading that demands new literary practices and newapproaches to decoding text and images. Lamb asks:

Does a book need to be made of paper,or can it be digital?
Can it contain artifacts or other elements?
Does it need to have pages?
Must it be linear, or can it be branchedand chaotic?

Lamb answers her questions byredefining a book as “a published collection of related pages orscreens.” I love that Lamb's definition of “book” allows forthe nonlinear and participatory pages and screens that are tellingstories on the iPads, laptops and smartphones our students carry withthem everywhere.

The Lake Mungo Indigenous Youth Forum

2011-10-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

On the lunettes (dry lake sand dunes)of Lake Mungo, deep into the red part of the Australian continent,nearly 200 secondary aboriginal students camped out and sharedmulti-media projects, stories, dreams, the frustrations ofadolescence and the trials of tents and chilly evenings in thedesert. The winter days in the desert were warm and lovely, though,and I had the pleasure of meeting several of these outstanding youngpeople and discover more about their lives and interests throughtheir multi-media projects.

Two schools, Swan Hill and WorawaCollege were chosen to present their Lake Mungo-related projects tosix indigenous schools in the Bering Strait School District (BSSD) inwestern Alaska via video teleconferencing (VTC). A fiery young eldernamed Little G and I facilitated question and answer sessions betweenstudents:

Swan Hill VTC

What sort of animals do you hunt?
Why do you dance your totem animal?
Why is Lake Mungo sacred to indigenouspeoples?
What sort of music do you listen to?
Do you really live in igloos?
Do you have a cell phone?
Do you Facebook?

Once initial shyness was breached, wefound students on both sides of the Pacific intrigued with both thecommonalities and differences of growing up in an indigenous culturestruggling to maintain tradition and language while embracing theexciting technical opportunities of the 21^st century. Weengaged in a powerful example of technical opportunity speaking liveover satellite from the deep desert to the remote tundra.

One very intelligent and lovely younglady presenting a fantastic and engaging project sidled up to meafter filming and confided that her town considered her aboriginalschool the “rough” school. I immediately thought of the brightstars I taught in BSSD and how they face the same prejudices. Despite scoring above the state average on the SBAs, my studentsstill contend with the stereotypes and preconceptions of indigenousschools in rural bush Alaska. Their challenges parallel aboriginalstudents' on the other side of world.

If I can make outdoor forums and VTCsbetween indigenous students my life's work, not only will I be ahappy individual, but I will know my work contributes to the vitalityof the next generation.

Digital Citizenship

2011-03-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

The DownUnder/UpOver project uses the social media site Flickr where students upload photos and leave comments in the same way they do on Facebook. Flickr hosts over five billion images. I have limited control over what my students may see in those five billion images and associated comments as they click their way to our private group. As a educator, I know that I cannot control the world in which my students live and the media that pervades that world. What I can do is teach digital citizenship and encourage my students to make the right choices as they navigate social media. In his book Digital Community, Digital Citizen, Jason Ohler advocates that students participate as citizens of local, global and digital communities simultaneously. He also challenges teachers to help students see and question their role in those communities.

The The DownUnder/UpOver project has provided me with so many teachable moments about social responsibility and citizenship in an increasingly virtual world. We have discussed the importance of considering one's audience when leaving comments.

Who is going to see this comment?
Is it appropriate to use “texting” language if this comment is part of a school project?
How long is this comment or photo going to be accessible in internet history?
Will future employers be able to access and view my Flickr or Facebook pages?

We have discussed the issue of identity and perceived identity.

What are the advantages in pretending to be someone else or creating a new identity online? What are the dangers?

These are valuable conversations that should be conducted within the structure of a classroom. Jason Ohler asks, “When it comes to teaching our students, do we consider them to have two lives or one?”

Reluctant Speakers

2011-03-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

The days when students surprise and delight sustain us all. On February 28^th, my students in the DownUnder/UpOver Project hosted a question/answer session where they showcased the traditional and modern outdoor clothing of the native village of Unalakleet, Alaska. One student also volunteered to answer questions about one of his passions: snowmachines. A reluctant speaker, this student surprised me when he volunteered to present and field questions about a Ski-Doo Renegade Rev-XP 600 during a VTC in which nearly 60 students from Alaska and New South Wales, Australia, were present and watching intently.

Every class has a few reluctant speakers. What are their passions? What is unique about where they live and what they do? How can we facilitate activities that provide an audience that our reluctant speakers want to reach and share their passions and their place? The DownUnder/UpOver project is providing this unique opportunity for students and proving that place-based learning can encourage reluctant speakers to step up and celebrate their unique culture, history, environment and economy.

The North River Salmon Project

2010-09-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

The North River Salmon Project was my first real stab at following Bering Strait School District's (BSSD) model of integration across the content areas. I aligned the project to BSSD standards in Science, Social Studies, Cultural Awareness, Technology, Reading, and Writing in order to involve students in shared experiments, cross cultural exchanges and an understanding of the influences on the salmon life cycle. The project featured five themed field trips that were broadcast as video teleconference (VTC) sessions to students in participating villages in Bering Strait School District and nearly 1,500 students in 18 schools in Australia.

Awareness of an audience, especially an audience of peers, strongly motivates students to perform well and fully engage. Students also participated in the video production of the broadcasts.

The session would not have been possible without volunteer assistance from guest speakers from the Bureau of Land Mangement (BLM), Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), and Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC). I was incredibly fortunate to have experts in the field with my students.

Recorded broadcasts of the field trips are available on the BSSD webpage. Although the project is completed, I will continue to work on the BSSD moodle site for the project in order to make it a replicable unit so that teachers in my district can access the recordings, associated resources and lessons for use in their classrooms.

The U.N., BSG, Human Rights and Technology

2009-05-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

The United Nations Department of Information hosted a panel of Battlestar Galactica's executive producers, actors and representatives of the U.N. who specialize in the show's main themes: human rights during armed conflicts, children's rights, gender, race, suicide bombing and religion. This forum also featured 100 high school students with questions about the TV series and its intersection with present day political, social, economic, philosophical and moral issues. This special presentation of the SciFi Channel is accessible to everyone regardless of their familiarity with the TV series. Below is the segment discussing human rights during armed conflicts, especially the moral implications of torture. However, a student also poses a question which remains a focus for this course:

What is considered appropriate use of technology?

This question sparks an interesting exploration of cyborg theory, the Other, technology addiction and what it means to be human. Edward James Olmos not only offers an interesting perspective on race but also advises the next generation on how they should use technology.

I.E.P. - Lessons for Podcasts and Vodcasts using GarageBand

2009-05-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

I developed my I.E.P. (individualized education plan) out of sheer frustration and necessity. I designed several projects throughout my internship featuring podcasts or vodcasts created in GarageBand. One lesson in particular shaped my I.E.P. technical skill development goals: The Mustapha Mond Department of Propaganda Project (MMDPP).

The MMDPP required students to create a vodcast of propaganda highlighting the major themes of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Most students chose to use GarageBand for their vodcasts due to my relative familiarity with the software. However, my relative familiarity was “relative” at best. I spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how to export the vodcasts from GarageBand to my iTunes and how to open the vodcasts in QuickTime. This lesson made me realize that I wanted to post all the projects in the same place (perhaps a blog) where each project is already converted to QuickTime and available for viewing at a click of the mouse. The class that I dedicated to presenting the vodcasts was rather hectic and unorganized. I spent most of the class period chasing students with my thumb drive.

Hence my goals:

Increase my fluency in GarageBand
Find a space to post podcasts or vodcasts

My search for a place in cyberspace led me to Allanah K, a virtual powerhouse of podcasting, blogging, twittering, wiki-ing, voicethreading and a number of other digital and technological tools and strategies that encourage storytelling and learning in the classroom. Allanah K works at a rural school in New Zealand. She integrates Web 2.0 tools into her literacy program through blogging and podcasting. Allanah K has wonderful links to helpful resources that instruct teachers how to create blogs and podcasts. Her wiki helped me to create my own podcast site on podOmatic. She is not only my heroine, but she also uses cool Kiwi words like "mate."

All of sudden, I had a place to post my students’ projects without the hassle of shuffling thumb drives. I needed a place and a space in cyberspace. The podOmatic site amazingly uploads the .m4a files from GarageBand into Quicktime. All I have to do is go to my site and press play. I have also found several podcasts on podOmatic that may prove helpful to a secondary Language Arts and Social Studies instructor. Larkspur is my podOmatic site. I have posted student examples for I.E.P. Lesson #2 and I.E.P. Lesson #3 of following lessons:

My I.E.P. reflection paper discusses my trials and tribulations fostering a podcasting savvy persona.

Teaching Blogs

2009-04-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

"In it's current politicized form, school reform has little to do with learning or teaching, and more to do with bureaucratic power and control. Critical thinking and innovation in the classroom can, and should, include activity besides what might work in our present - broken - policy environment.

--Doug Noon "What Doesn't Work"

I chose to follow two teachers’ blogs this past semester: Doug Noon’s Borderland and Dana Huff’s huffenglish. Doug Noon teaches at a public middle school in Fairbanks, Alaska. Dana Huff is a high school English teacher at a private Jewish high school in Atlanta, Georgia. The two blogs occupy two ends of a spectrum. Noon concerns are very different from Huff’s. Noon often tackles controversial issues such as white privilege, the stimulus package and standardized testing. Huff’s most controversial posting involved accepting late work. However, regardless of geographical location, willingness to share political inclinations and access to resources, both teachers share many of the same concerns and issues including

Planning
Time for free and voluntary reading in school
Engagement
Technology in the classroom
Standards

I truly enjoy Noon’s Borderland. A lively and intellectual conversation of ideas is exchanged on Doug Noon’s blog. I have learned so much from not only Noon’s posts but also from the folks posting comments on the blog.

Huff’s blog is incredibly helpful, especially to English teachers. She includes handouts for peer editing, composition and texts in both American and British literature. Huff also provides excellent links, a list of books she is currently reading and a blogroll of teaching blogs that is rather diverse and eclectic.

Alaska State Museum

2009-04-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

I created a Keynote presentation that provides teachers with suggested projects, ideas, resources and contacts for the Alaska State Museum. This Keynote presentation fulfills a requirement for my Alaska Studies class at UAS. The Alaska State Museum website is a great resource for teachers. Many of my suggested projects can be completed "distance" through the website and do not require a trip to the museum.

Article Assessment #2 - 2009

2009-04-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

Ann M. Stone
o.cespitosa@yahoo.com

Assistive Technology for Reading
By Hasselbring and Bausch

Overview

Hasselbring and Bausch, in the article “Assistive Technology for Reading,” argue that computer-based applications can help students with learning disabilities access grade level text and “strengthen and improve their overall reading skills.” One application uses synthetic speech to read text aloud to the student while the same text is highlighted on screen. Another application, READ 180, provides anchor videos that discuss background knowledge needed to make sense of texts. While Hasselbring and Bausch applaud the advancement of assistive technologies, they caution that technology is still a tool of education and, as a tool, must be used skillfully in order to yield results.

continued

The Social Web in Education

2009-03-03T15:30:00.000-08:00

The O.W.L. at Purdue. About a week ago, I told the social studies teacher that I ought to bake cookies for the folks that maintain the Online Writing Lab at Purdue. I absolutely love this website. This website offers a wealth of information including complete style guides for MLA and APA formatting, resources for teaching writing, resources for teaching ESL and resources for teaching grammar and mechanics featuring printer friendly activities. I have developed a lesson that teaches students how to navigate this website in order to properly cite references for research papers.

The Poetry Foundation. I teach a poetry class with a culminating project called "Poetry Notebook." The project requires students to search for poems in books and on the internet. During one lesson, I asked students to conduct a search on variations of "poetry" in order to find credible and well designed websites that will help the students to find poems for the notebook. One of my students found "The Poetry Foundation" website. This website is phenomenal. The website boldly tackles issues from Shakespeare to Tupac and allows users to search for poems through "poetry tool" which can search by category, title, author, first line, occasion, glossary term, most popular or recently added. The website also offers numerous links to articles, journals, literature, podcasts, etc. regarding poetry.

freeplaymusic.com. I like this website because it offers free downloads of songs that you can use for digital media projects. Recently, my students were creating short podcasts of propaganda for Brave New World. I directed many of them to use this website instead of paying for songs on iTunes. I also did not want them to waste precious class time scrolling through their playlists. Freeplaymusic allows the user to search for music based on style or feel such as "chill/laid back" or "dark/mysterious" or "spiritual/uplifting."

Digital Story

2009-02-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

"Running Away with Bridger"

My digital story was such a pleasure to write, plan and create. I started writing the story with my students at Yaakoosge while helping my host teacher gather writing samples from the entire student body. The students were asked to write a short personal memoir starting with two graphic organizers designed by my host teacher. The graphic organizers were simply brilliant. The first asked students to jot down ten memories from their life leading up to where they are now. The second required students to choose one memory and examine how they felt, what they saw, what they heard and even what they smelt during that time in their life. This activity encouraged the writing of my digital story "Running Away with Bridger."

Ironically, I was supposed to be the expert in writing personal memoir. I was supposed to be able to tell the students exactly why they were writing. While writing the story and when first presenting the story arc to Dr. Ohler and the tech class, I lacked a clear idea of why I was writing this story. I thought I wanted to convey the warm relationship between myself and my father. Dr. Ohler pushed me into discovering that I was writing a story of identity. My revised story arc was brief compared to the first one, but focused on the transformation I experienced in terms of identity. I proved to be a wonderful model for the students. I was able to show them the power of writing personal memoir and how the process of storytelling can not only reveal truths about oneself but provide a medium for expressing that truth.

I have developed two rubrics for digital storytelling. One is the rubric I designed for my Literature of Wealth class for the Wealth and Poverty of Juneau iMovies. The second is reworked to reflect the expectations for this particular project.

I have posted "Running Away with Bridger" on YouTube.

Article Assessment #1 - 2009

2009-02-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

Ann M. Stone
o.cespitosa@yahoo.com

The Overdominance of Computers
By Lowell W. Monke

Overview

Lowell W. Monke, in his article “The Overdominance of Computers,” argues that society has pushed computers into the classroom at every grade level propelled by the fear that, without computers, our students will fall behind and will not be prepared for the 21st century. Monke writes pointedly that students today are immersed in technologies that distance them from contact with the living world and community relationships. He encourages that schools work to create a balance between the student’s technology and machine dominated life and a school life rich in face-to-face interaction, meaningful relationships with adults, outdoor activity, music, drama, dance, art, hands-on lessons, conversation and poetry. Monke suggests that

the irony of post modern education is that preparing children for a high-tech future requires us to focus our attention more than ever before on the task of understanding what it means to be human, to be alive, to be part of both social and biological communities. . .

continued . . .

Education Philosophy iMovie

2008-12-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed creating the short film of still shots for my educational philosophy. My philosophy is so complex and convoluted at this point in my education as a teacher that condensing my views into a film less than two minutes proved challenging. I enlisted my students in this project. At the alternative high school, we conduct interventions for students that need to get back on track or have made poor choices. I told my students that I was the subject of a MAT intervention and I needed to get back on track and finish my iMovie featuring my educational philosophy. I was absolutely surprised at the positive response. My students took photos and staged shots for the movie. My students also chuckled that this movie would be my first YouTube upload. For a week, all I heard from my students was "Oh, I remember my first upload . . ." and "Ann, you have to check out what I uploaded yesterday!"

The power of digital storytelling lies in the overlay of words, images, and music. Our students are naturals, simply digital natives, at working within this medium. I am working to provide my students with more opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge through more visual and aural means. I have a wonderful student in my intermediate class struggling with an essay. He has difficulty writing, but he is brilliant at providing examples from media sources such as film and the internet to explain themes and motifs. I am structuring a final project to accommodate his talents.

Digital storytelling also forces the creator to examine and reflect upon oneself critically. An activity students and teachers alike should experience. In order to view my iMovie featuring my educational philosophy, please click the YouTube icon.

Article Assessment #3

2008-11-17T22:40:00.000-08:00

Ann M. Stone
o.cespitosa@yahoo.com
11/17/08

Tools for the Mind
By Mary Burns

Overview

Mary Burns, in her article “Tools for the Mind,” explores the present state of computer use in the classroom. She argues that the most often used programs encourage little more than low level thinking skills and that computers have been treated as an “exceptionality” tool when other instructional methods fail to work for a student. Burns cites an example of a workshop she facilitated with teachers of social studies. She asked the teachers to use spreadsheets to explore how electoral votes weigh a person’s vote differently depending on the population and geographical size of the state in which they live. The teachers reexamined a concept they teach year after year and learned to value the analytical power of a spreadsheet program in the classroom.

Reference Points

Teachers need to reevaluate the types of programs they use in the classroom and implement more programs that encourage high order thinking skills.

School districts should promote professional development in technology integration and provide on-site technical support.

continued

Reflection on Presentation

2008-11-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

Watching my Energy Awareness Presentation was painful. I kept watching how I rub my hands together like I am freezing and trying to create a little warm fire in my palms. I can hear the noise my hands are making on the video. I grated my teeth while watching myself through the entire video. However, I managed to succeed on a few points of the class created rubric.

Hours of practice reduced the number of "hmms" and "likes" from my presentation.
I neglected to share information on a particular slide but proceeded to the next seamlessly.
I tried to make eye contact with everyone and I tried to vary my voice and body language.
My Keynote presentation met criteria and the results of my research project were clear.
My presentation generated a lively, engaging, and enjoyable discussion.

There is always room for improvement. The following points require my attention as I continue to polish my presenting style.

I read entire sentences off a few of my slides.
The noise I created with my hands was distracting.
I could detect a little nervousness and voice shaking in the very beginning of the presentation.
My hair sweeping over the mike created crackling sounds in the audio.
I wandered a little off topic during one slide and experienced a flustered moment before continuing.
Occasionally I sway back and forth from foot to foot.

Overall, I am pleased with my presentation. I chose a topic about which I am passionate. Being able to sharing my findings with the class and spark an engaging discussion is precisely the reason I want to be a teacher. Watching oneself on video is awkward but incredibly eye opening.

Energy Awareness Project Reflection

2008-11-04T13:08:00.000-08:00

Initially, I felt the same way as Renee when I crunched my numbers and reflected on the data. I expected the numbers to be higher. I was hoping that the number of gallons of oil used to produce plastic bags to be such an astounding number that the use of plastic bags would obviously be a tremendous waste. However, I stepped back from the small numbers and chose to visualize the four gallons per year that I consume by simply choosing plastic at the grocery store. I imagined four gallon milk jugs filled with oil. I toss that amount of oil into the landfill every year in the form of a plastic bag that will not biodegrade and will likely blow away from the landfill and end up in the ocean to be swallowed by a sea turtle.

I also calculated how many barrels of oil are consumed by plastic bag use if every man, woman, and child in Juneau uses the same number of plastic bags I do within the space of a year. I also calculated the number of barrels of oil consumed by entire country through plastic bag consumption. Please refer to my spreadsheet for the precise numbers.

Juneau = 3000 barrels per year
United States - 29 million barrels per year

The number of barrels wasted by the country constrasts sharply with statistics I discovered in my research on plastic bag consumption in this country. I found one statistic declaring that on average the United States tosses 100 billion plastic bags away and wastes 12 million barrels of oil by doing so. If every man, woman, and child consumed the same number of plastic bags as myself, the country wastes 29 million barrels per year. I hope the discrepancy between these two numbers points to a growing trend of Americans using canvas bags or another type of reusable bag for shopping excursions.

I also calculated the amount of money I will save on groceries if I switch to reusable bags at the grocery store.

$20.00 or enough to buy dinner at Chan's

I enjoyed researching a question with a measurable answer. The research process is a valuable tool for students.

Please refer to my Keynote presentation for further details.

Article Assessment #2

2008-10-12T13:24:00.000-07:00

Ann M. Stone
o.cespitosa@yahoo.com
10/12/08

An Educator’s Guide to the Read/Write Web
by Will Richardson

Overview

For years, I believed that placing text and images on the web would always remain the sole occupation of the super computer savvy microserfs (this is a term coined by Douglas Coupland who also coined the term Generation X). I am tickled beyond belief to have my own blog. If someone had told me in 1998 that I would publish assignments and share images on the web within the next ten years, I would have laughed and replied that I was a fan of science fiction as well. Will Richardson, in his article “An Educator’s Guide to the Read/Write Web,” addresses the need for educators to embrace the idea of students creating content and publishing on the web. He explores ways in which teachers and students can benefit from using Weblogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. Richardson also discusses the new meaning of “literacy” in light of the new technology.

Reference Points

Weblogs can be used to draw out critical thinking, reading, and writing skill.

Publishing on the internet encourages students engage in the process of editing and revising.

Students can create “online, reflective, interactive portfolios of their work to share with a worldwide audience.”

Students not only can access the writings of scientists, writers, and researchers, but also can post questions to these individuals.

Wikis are incredible collaborative tools that are policed by a community of people.

continued

Educational Philosophy in regard to Technology

2008-10-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

If Garner adds another type of intelligence to his list, I suggest he add technological intelligence. Students are starting to program as a first language. They need to have opportunities in school to exhibit and share this intelligence. Teachers and students should discuss and explore the responsibility of using technology on a global scale. Students need to understand that the web serves a global audience. Teachers should also cover the concepts of interpersonal and intra-personal communication in regard to technology with their students. Students need to realize that some new technologies may inhibit social skills like the tendency to obsessively listen to an iPod. However, that same technology may serve students to increase their social skills if approached correctly. Students learning to create their own podcasts will start considering audience, social responsibility, and appropriateness.

Mantra: Technology is a powerful tool for students to consider in terms of writing or performing for an audience, social responsibility, and appropriate use.

Energy Awareness Project

2008-10-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Plastic Bags - Environmental Foe and Oil Consumer

How much oil do I waste with my plastic bag consumption?

One winter, I watched a plastic bag, caught in the upper most branches of a very tall and beautiful red oak tree, flap in the wind day after day. The red oak was visible through my dining room window and, at every meal, I found myself drawn to the movement of that thoroughly entangled plastic bag. Not only was it an eyesore, but that plastic bag resided in the tree for five months until a particularly fierce storm torn it asunder and it blew away toward the Swan River and the boundary of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Before I left Montana, I had cut my plastic bag consumption down considerably with the use of

canvas bags
backpacks
and a super-sized leather purse.

Plastic bags are an environmental nuisance even with proper disposal. They are also very difficult to recycle. The materials constructed from recycled plastic bags are typically headed for the landfill within a few years. Plastic bags pose a particular threat to birds, marine mammals, and sea turtles.

I have been very lazy and inconsiderate with my use of plastic bags since moving to Juneau. I have failed to create a shopping routine which includes remembering to bring my canvas bags. I have also tossed out numerous plastic bags. My condo agreement dictates that dog waste must be picked up upon deposit. I use plastic bags for this purpose and essentially put a biodegradable substance in a non-biodegradable container and send it to the landfill.

I will track my consumption of plastic bags including the number I acquire each day and the number I carelessly toss out each day. Every plastic bag eventually ends up in a landfill. Every plastic bag is not only an environmental threat but also requires oil for its production. My specific question is "How much oil have I wasted with my consumption of plastic bags?" The web provides varying statistics.

In an article for Salon, Katharine Mieszkowski says that “every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they’re been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk form the grocery store. It’s equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil.” Source.

The most manageable number I can find is Elizabeth Royte’s claim that it takes

430,000 gallons of oil to produce 100 million plastic bags. Source.

Royte has written a book called Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. I trust Royte’s investigative journalism and I will assume that it takes .0043 gallons of oil to produce one plastic bag. Although the amount of oil I consume via plastic bag may appear infinitesimal, I want to calculate the number of gallons I would consume over a lifetime if I continue to act so carelessly. Also, how much oil could be conserved if I can convince one, two, or five more of my friends to follow my example?

Anthropological Assessment of Technology

2008-09-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

Anthropological Assessment of Technology for Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School

Yaakoosge is a technology laden haven for our youth. Every student has access to a Macintosh laptop for personal and classroom use during the day. Marc Prensky in his article "Listen to the Natives" argues that students need to practice programming and related computer skills in order to compete in the 21st century. He argues that their time at school is vastly different from their time spent after school in a world pervasive with the new technologies. The students at Yaakoosge enjoy a different experience. I watch my students interlace and manipulate information between laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras. Nearly every day I learn something new from my students regarding Bluetooth technology or how to download podcasts and songs into iTunes.

I am certainly a digital immigrant striving to learn the digital language of the 21st century. The absence of school standards or competencies for technology addresses the reluctance of the old guard to admit how little we know as digital immigrants. We are struggling so hard to keep up that we have not taken the time to reflect on what our students may need to know about podcasting or blogging. We face the reality of trying to prepare students for technologies yet to be created. However, the climate at Yaakoosge is receptive to student experimentation with technologies and we are learining with them and from them.

For more information on the technology available at Yaakoosge Alternative High School, please refer to the detailed assessment and laptop contracts and district expectations .

Article Assessment #1

2008-09-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Ann M. Stone
o.cespitosa@yahoo.com
September 13, 2008

Listen to the Natives
By Marc Prensky

Overview

Marc Prensky, in his article “Listen to the Natives,” argues that school is “becoming an increasing moribund and irrelevant institution” because school fails to teach students the curriculum of the future. This “future” curriculum features the new technologies offered by the web, cell phones and ipods. Prensky recognizes that today’s students are “digital natives” and those of us not born into the digital age are “digital immigrants.” The key skill for the 21st century may be programming. Not only do schools fail to include this skill within the curriculum but also seek to prevent students from practicing this skill by banning cell phone use. Prensky believes that teachers need to empower their students by asking them to help design more technologically adaptive instruction.

Reference Points

Prensky argues that

“Our schools should be teaching kids how to program, filter knowledge, and maximize the features and connectivity of their tools.”
We should select our teachers based on their capacity for empathy and guidance over their mastery of content area.
Europe, China, Japan, and the Philippines are using mobile phones as learning tools.
“86% of U.S. teachers say that computer technology has affected the way they teach."
Teachers need to concentrate on student engagement and motivation by relinquishing old ways of teaching and implementing student advised curriculum focused on the new technologies.

Reflection

Every student at my school has a laptop. We spend a great deal of time monitoring their computer use in class. They constantly play games and search for illicit material. A few days ago, my host teacher asked a student a question and he replied that he was too distracted by his laptop to pay attention to her verbal question. He asked her to instant message him instead of calling on him. As "digital immigrants," my host teacher and I found this suggestion ridiculous and disturbing. The student was sitting less than two feet from the teacher. Why should the teacher send a question from her computer to his? However, nearly every student in the class loved the idea. The idea of instant messaging in class was far more natural to them than the idea of an in-class discussion.

I fear the loss of face-to-face interaction. I fear the loss of class discussions with students watching the facial expressions of their peers and understanding the nuances of tone within the range of a human voice. However, my fears may be alleviated if we choose to embrace our students’ inevitable use of new technological tools and choose to teach proper etiquette for cell phone, laptop, and ipod use in social situations. We could spend less time trying to prevent our students from pulling out their cell phones and wandering about the web on their laptops if we engaged both technological tools with the material we wished them to learn.

At some point, the students should be taught to set aside tools in order to interact interpersonally. The workplace still requires people skills and our students need to learn to function as social beings without constantly referring to a LCD screen.

Futuring - Sabrina's Journey

2008-09-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Sabrina's Journey

Sabrina's short film of still shots with the voice over of her personal journey of becoming a teacher and the chorus of "Do I belong?" is a wonderful exploratory piece of self. The most powerful part of the film is her chorus "Do I belong?" because the question is a universal one. Her chorus is a subtle invitation for the viewer to not only to question a personal sense of belonging but also to witness how Sabrina resolves her conflicts between her roles as caretaker and independent woman and her conflicts about her sense of place.

Sabrina's short film depicts her struggle to define her role in her community.
She also questions her sense of place and where she most naturally belongs by telling the story of her college experiences in Durango and her return home to Southeast Alaska.
Although focused on her particular journey, Sabrina's short film is inviting to the viewer and causes the viewer to personally reflect on her chorus "Do I belong?"

My host teacher is teaching a memoir class this quarter. Sabrina's short film is an example of how to invite the reader or viewer into your story. My host teacher finds that one of her challenges with her students is to teach them to vary their sentence structure. Too many of their sentences begin with "I." A student naturally wants to start a memoir with "I." However, varied and interesting memoirs tell stories of the shared human condition. I would certainly assign my students a memoir style video project with the challenge to emulate Sabrina's subtle invitation to the viewer.

Futuring - How to Animate a Rolling Ball

2008-09-09T18:13:00.001-07:00

How to Animate a Rolling Ball

The students created an animated short in order to demonstrate their understanding of the mathematics of rolling spheres. The animated short was intended to replace a simple report and became a story of the students' learning process and the trial and error of creating animation. The students not only mastered the math, but also practiced skills that will serve them in an increasingly digital age.

The lesson objectives must justify the time required to produce digital animation.
The animated short demonstrates the learning process of the students. The students incorporate story into the animated short by tracking and correcting the initial mistake in attempting to make the ball roll.
The animated short becomes a record and a teaching tool.

I would choose to use this project for concepts absolutely vital for my students to remember. I created a film for my senior thesis about the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). Specific lines from the legislation still float about in my brain. My greatest challenge with the film project was learning how to digitally edit and add a voice over and a score. I am not completely satisfied with the final product, but I am very proud of my dedication to the film and my fearless attitude toward the new technology. Students feel particularly connected to their created works and the sense of pride and increased self-esteem are important components of a learning experience.

Futuring - epic2015

2008-09-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

epic 2015

The creators of epic2015 present a short film predicting the future of news media. The merger of Amazon and Google will eventually tailor the news a person receives based on their previous selections of interest and their consumer choices. We are what we eat, but mostly we are what we buy.

Googlezon, at its best, might provide an incredible breadth and depth of information for a discriminating consumer. However, the majority of consumers may receive shallow, sensational and trivial information driving them to further senseless consumption and ignorance.
The written word will become completely obsolete.
Individually published podcasts between members of a digital community may allow for a measure of connectivity, freedom of speech and freedom of information never before realized.

As a prospective teacher, I am very excited about the accessibility of publishing for students. I think of the newspaper and literary magazine classes of my high school years. I often felt like our finished products were pointless and expensive, serving only as sentimental scrapbook pieces. The ability to place finished works on the web to share, compare, critique and simply enjoy is a delightful prospect.