CEdu 521 Week 2: Going Deeper into LoTI and Technology Tools

Our second week of class offered many ideas for increasing student engagement through use of technology tools in my business classes at Falls North Junior High. As this semester progresses, I look forward to enhancing the learning experiences of my 8th and 9th graders. Here are some ideas that came out of our class:

• Allow students to try Google SMS on their cell phones in order to get stock quotes for our new stock market simulation. As the "Pay Attention" You Tube video stated, "If you're not using cell phones to teach, you should be." I know my students will love this activity and get hooked on their newly-learned investing skills.
• Allow my students to present their Entrepreneur Profiles using PowerPoint. As we discussed in class, it is one thing to create a PowerPoint; it is altogether a higher level of learning if students present their knowledge to their peers. In other words, why assign a PowerPoint unless it will have an audience? We do student presentations in Computer Applications (Me and Trivia PowerPoint projects) and now it is time to expand this into Business Venture.
  
• The review of the various teaching LoTI scenarios and quotes helped me understand how to make activities more authentic. The comments I received on the Business Venture franchise project blog posting will take the LoTI level up significantly by involving community business people . No doubt my students will increase the quality of their work, knowing that adults will be reviewing their franchise proposals.
  
• The Technology Tool Showcase jigsaw activity was most helpful in that it expanded my knowledge of technology tools way beyond the Microsoft Office tools I currently use. During this semester and upcoming summer, I will take time to learn more about Inspiration, SMART Boards, and Digital Video so that I can incorporate these exciting, yet foreign, tools into many of my lesson plans. Incidentally, our brief discussion of the COW made me wonder why our school only has 16 laptops in its COW when most classes at North have 22-28 students. How much more useful would the COW be if all students working on an activity could use a laptop?

In the weeks to come, I am excited to try out more technology tools with my North students in both our project and Work Sample 1. In addition, I look forward to learning about assessments of technology-based activities and projects.

Text: Chapter 1--Thoughts on Project-Based Multimedia Learning

I absolutely loved the way Chapter 1 was introduced. What better thing for teachers to see and hear than a "completely engrossed" classroom of students? The excitement in the air, the purposeful movement of students and the engaged discussions are a teacher's dream scenario.

As I began reading this book, I was hoping to quickly find a definition of multimedia. I had some idea but was happy when our authors explained it on page 2 as the ". . . integration of media objects such as text, graphics, video, animation, and sound." In the multimedia projects I have incorporated into my junior high business education curriculum, I have only used text, graphics, and animation. I am now brainstorming how to add video and sound to enhance my students' learning. I will be working more closely with our school's tech coordinator in these areas. In addition, I would like to go beyond the typical PowerPoint and find out how our district supports (if it does at all) Web site creation. Our LoTI discussion made my realize how important audiences are to increasing student effort and involvement. Posting student work on the Internet would certainly achieve higher-level LoTI goals.

Several other sections of Chapter 1 caught my attention. Some of the seven dimensions of project-based multimedia learning made me think as follows:

• Business educators are fortunate to have much of their curriculum contain strong real-world connections. Our Budget Project, checkbook simulation, and Business Plan units all possess this attribute.
• Student decision-making is also crucial. I intend on expanding the options available for the Entrepreneur Profile (previously just a Word document) to PowerPoint presentations or videotaped role-playing of famous entreprenuers. I will also allow my students to choose between a famous entrepreneur such as Kimora Lee Simmons, Bill Gates, Mrs. Fields, or Ray Kroc or a relative that started their own business. I will model a combination of these options by preparing a PowerPoint detailing my grandfather's entrepreneurial endeavors in the service station and hardware businesses. Even as a 46-year-old, I find these choices to be much more engaging than a research paper on Andrew Carnegie.
• I look forward to learning how to assess multimedia projects with more competency. Chapter 6 will be most helpful to me.
• I will need to investigate HyperStudio, Kid Pix, and Netscape Composer in order to expand my "toolbox" of multimedia tools. There appears to be more out there (hopefully suitable for my eighth and ninth graders) besides PowerPoint.

Finally, my retail management experience confirmed our authors' concept of "value added" when using project-based multimedia learning. It is crucial that our students learn the three skills sets (hard, soft, and computer literacy) for future job success. As a hiring manager, I saw how necessary these competencies were. Project-based multimedia learning greatly enhances the acquisition of these skills. I look forward to becoming a part of this important educational process that also places crucial emphasis on differentiation and higher-order thinking skills.

A Multimedia Project to Move Up the LoTI Ladder: Business Ownership: The Franchise Option

In our Business Venture course at North Junior High, we have included a lesson on franchising as an entrepreneurial option. This EconEdLink (part of Thinkfinity) online activity serves as a precursor to our Business Plan unit as it provides an engaging method for students to learn more about franchises that they are already very familiar with and excited about. Check out this Cold Stone Creamery link at Entrepreneur.com to see what my students discover.

Here is the teacher link.

Here is the student link. I provide the worksheet in Activity 3 as a handout to be completed as an assessment.

I have also used this Word file (converted to a Google.doc) to reinforce what students have learned about franchises.

In my first two years at North, I have found this lesson to be a successful learning experience for my eighth and ninth graders but I would like to move it up to a higher LoTI level. My experience indicates that this multimedia lesson is currently at Level 3 as it involves online research with an effective progression of tasks. The Activity 3 worksheet involves comparison and analysis.

CEdu 521: Week 1 of Learning with Technology: Effective Teaching Strategies

I am very excited to start CEdu 521 because it feels like the right time to take the next step in our graduate school process. We certainly have learned many new technology tools since we began this program in October. Now, as was emphasized in class, we need to apply this new knowledge in authentic and effective learning strategies for our students.

As a business education teacher, I now recognize many opportunities to move my students to higher LoTI levels. The LoTI PowerPoint, survey, and Project Analysis Guide all brought me to the realization of how much more I can do in this area. During class Tuesday night, I found myself constantly brainstorming on how to enhance many class computer projects at North Junior High. Our Financial Life Skills Budget Project could be enhanced by allowing students to share in a wiki or blog (with fellow students and/or parents) if they were within budget and why or why not. They could also share what surprises and decisions they encountered while also thinking about what changes they would make in future months. Until last night, I have never thought about how important an audience would be in raising the Budget Project from LoTI Level 3 to Level 4. The Project Analysis Guide handout was right on when it stated, ". . . real audiences will intentionally raise the level of expectation for the quality of student work."

The main hurdle to this student sharing would be finding a method that meets the approval of our building and district tech people. We use Gaggle's standard paid subscription service for e-mail units in our 8th grade Computer Applications course. Gaggle also has a blog feature that we have not used at North. I will pursue this option, in terms of approval and any additional costs. The real-life skills my students learn when preparing their own budget (seeking apartments, cars, clothes, food, personal items, insurance, loans, etc.) is something they love to share verbally with neighboring students in the lab. The ability to share this decison-making process online with their peers and parents and post comments would be such a real-world, authentic addition to the Budget Project.

The "Hook" for my First Work Sample

As I prepare my first work sample, I have gone back to my teacher certification days to find a "hook" that will get my students excited about our new Human Resources unit. In this introductory lesson for my 8th and 9th grade Business Venture students, I will play the ending of a Celebrity Apprentice show with Donald Trump, Gene Simmons, Jennie Finch, and Omarosa. Most of my students have watched this show and know who the four celebrities are. In order to get this You Tube clip through our district filter, I have embedded it in my blog. In addition, in order to guarantee appropriateness, I will play the clip from 8:25 to the end (about 1.5 minutes). This will eliminate some poor language from Trump. Most importantly, this clip will get students thinking about the seriousness of firing an employee and lead into an introductory discussion about best practices in the human resources field.