for Bill Kiley:
from: Jerry Garfunkel
WILD T.E.A.M. Weekly Input Sheet for May 18th
George Lucas Educational Foundation
GLEF organization
Videos reviewed:
Laptops on Expedition
Eager to Learn
Geometry in the Real World: Students as Architects
From Hula to High Tech
Laptops for All
Beyond Band: Music Technology Inspires Students
  The Maine Environment
 

Great Team, Great School   (Friday, June 18, 2004)

Students Make a Business of Learning (Friday, June 25, 2004)

Question: Of the GLEF videos I viewed, which had the greatest impact upon me and why

This is difficult to answer; I truly was impressed by a number of the videos. So I'll evade the direct question and discuss which features from various videos most impressed me.

Video title
JG comments
Geometry in the Real World: Students as Architects

(Top of Page)
 > great context for geometry project - relevant to the students, relevant to the course material.
> could adapt off the shelf software, like SIMS tools to script lessons
> good project (building design) - wide range of skills demonstrated and intelligences required.
> great involvement of the students. high motivation, involvement
> very collaborative in nature and ideal for collaborative technology tools (BBS, live chat, forums, PDF, shared apps, video conferencing, etc.)
>  project activities involved indoors and outdoors, as it should be. It's real life
>  the metaphor of designing a real community building was put in relative context. The students could imagine and relate to the project.
>  video was primarily a parallel (capturing) media collaboration project

From Hula to High Tech

(Top of Page)

>  excellent integration of technology into all studies
>  multiple grades, multiple subjects
>  Demonstrating that technology is a tool to be used to enhance learning
>  great demonstration of constructivist learning
>  good amateur video shooting and audio/video editing
>  handheld's open options
>  privacy issues not discussed - how come?
>  Community involvement

Eager to Learn

(Top of Page)

>  The use of video journalism is an excellent project for any subject
>  video should be a toy that children like to play with - like X-Box and Game Boy.
>  video, multi-media is a natural attraction to our current (and subsequent) generation of students
>  they will become increasingly more comfortable - they are tomorrow's teachers.
>  Post production video editing included good fun video affects like liquid fusion
>  great critical thinking projects. i.e. Jack in the box
>  collaboration projects in class - natural in all activities
>  collaboration with hawaii and japan particularly struck me because of my interest in the Classroom-to-Classroom Portal project

>  When students come into a program so eager, the sky is the limit. The most creative curriculum designers and teachers should be used to exploit the potential of these students
>  good use of the internet for research - students got comfortable; it became second nature. This is the generation that will be designing the next generation's learning tools.

Laptops on Expedition

(Top of Page)

>  setting is in Portland Oregon - environmentally sound and beautiful with a reputation to protect its heritage. (I recall an anti-Relocate-to-Oregon champagne some years ago.)
>  The video demonstrated multiple disciplines mixed into the various projects
>  a good example of a "the making of ...." video production with emphasis on how they use media to make media -
>  "don't use text books" - interesting quote from one of the project coordinators
>  constructivism at its best - Project based curriculum
>  reach out to community businesses
>  newsletter to parents and community could help
>  The school district has its own John Collins

Beyond Band:
Music Technology Inspires Students

(Top of Page)

>  Bayshore LI, school district
>  Is there anyone from Bayshore in the TEAM program?
>  music education, performance education, great arts program,
>  community supported * very important
>  music ensemble forces collaboration
>   music composition hardware/software
>   very early exposure to music - first grade
>   music is woven into all grades and subjects as a learning tool
>   It's a common language in a diverse community
>   computers as flexible tool for creative projects is demonstrated clearly
>   Multimedia projects are high profile that will be seen - motivates students to be more "professional" and exacting and careful to detail. This school district clearly is preparing a "higher" level of graduates than other schools. I'd like to see stats from Bayshore someday

>  Music curriculum and emphasis is woven into every discipline - reading, phys ed, etc.

>  The video is another good example of a parallel creative project in progress capturing the first creative process: (The Making of....)
>  The video was primarily a parallel media collaboration project captured other events.

The Maine Environment

(Top of Page)

>  laptops with kids everywhere for every middle schooler
>  surplus budget for 2000 computers - yeah right!
>  "OH COOL" factor from kids - great measurement for motivation
>  great recognition and emphasis on motivation, enthusiasm
> " transformative educational value of computers beyond being a pencil" excellent quote for former governor of Maine
>  changes the way learning happens
>  using projected laptops and other state-of-the-art ed technology
>  staff development stressed - most emphatic (only) of all the videos on this subject
>  portability would be a great asset. elliot soloway knows something they will discover in Maine shortly
>  King Middle school in Portland Maine is the backdrop for video
>  emailing, beaming, IM'ing, busy productive technology in use.
>  laptops on boat
>  Excellent exploitation of technology mobility. (again, a bow to E.Soloway)

Laptops for All

(Top of Page)

>  Mott Hall in Harlem, NYC
>  excellent integration of laptops into class work
>  each student with his/her own computer
>  Project based learning (problem solving - chaotic brilliance in the classroom - busyness)
>  stress on playing Chess - I question this value - might other activities yield more growth
>  community partnerships with City College of NY (CCNY) - like CWP and Westbury
>  promotes true constructivist learning
>  Good critical thinking exercise in all activities
>  building kites - great context for mixed disciplines
>  l
aptops for math design,
>  Wireless adds mobility (creativity) to education designers
>  English - written story about Ben Franklin's kite - computer based word processor.

Great Team, Great School
(Friday, June 18, 2004)

(Top of Page)

>  Great real life projects with tasks that parallel real life roles.
>
 "When adding technology learning is a blast."  This was a quote introducing the Balloon Propelled vehicles.
"kids are emersed in their work, it's fun.  Kids learn more when it's fun."  A wonderful quote from the movie.  Absolutely true.  When learning is fun (attractive), students come to the table willing to meet the educational system more than half way.  Their need for self-gratification (selfishness) is satisfied with nurturing, life-learning lessons and projects.

>  Balloon propelled cars - great fun project that was made into interdisciplinary project across the 8th grade curriculum.  Language Arts (write commercials), Mathematics (car loans/payments/budget), Ecology ( environmental/pollution)
>   Web quests, on line research component, evaluate real car salesmen pitches. (Leave the classroom - Life)

>  Teachers (various subjects) coordinate everyday (45 min shared time). 
>  The project is truly a collaborative project at the Teachers' level, at the Students' level and at the community level
>  As in any good constructivist classroom, there is a lot of "busy-ness" in the classroom (and outside).   It appears chaotic but of course it is "structured chaos." Paraphrasing one of the teachers, "...kids depend on each other to help solve a problem before they depend on the teacher."
>  the activity does create stress, but this stress is like the tension behind Senge personal mastery discipline.  It's a tension defined by the gap between where the student wants to be and where he/she is.  It's constructive tension. There is so much activity happening in the classroom, touching on every aspect of the project (shared vision) that it encourages a student, if he/she can be helpful to someone else, to jump in and lend a hand or expertise.  The unstructured structure allows for this.
>  The "Circus of the Kids" was a wonderful event to bring to the school. 
> I wonder what that school's budget is and how they get the cooperation from the community volunteers.
>  I  wonder also, how did this video get made/distributed, given all the school district concerns about privacy and security.

Students Make a Business of Learning
(Friday, June 25, 2004)

(Top of Page)

>  From the GLEF Edutopia archives Fall, 2003
>
 At first I didn't get the purpose of this film in the Edutopia film library. It seemed to be documenting an entrepreneurial project at the Fremont Business Academy, in Oakland California, with cleanly shot and produced video. But we have seen many wonderful examples of cleanly shot and edited videos. Why another? And then I heard one of the high school kids talk about their entrepreneurial program and how it was "...completely project based." Two other ninth graders casually spoke of their learning experiences being "...expeditionary learning, critical thinking assessment, multiple intelligences, community service, culturally relevant pedagogy." It dawned on me that this was the quintessential constructivist environment. The students themselves talk about taking responsibility for their own learning and understand the science behind that method of learning. It's remarkable; it makes me think they have been given scripts to read from Senge, Gardner, Jonesson, et al.
>  State competition for SIFE project added Language arts, communications, presentation skills to the mix
>  The best constructivist projects are multi-disciplinary. The very nature of collaborative project-based learning involves the bringing together of students with different skills and different strengths. They are encouraged to "use" each other and to help each other. The bringing together of multiple intelligences in project-based learning allows us (makes us?) turn to multiple disciplines (high school subjects) for each specialized component of the project(s). Nobody is left out.
>  Each aspect of the project draws on its own set of intelligences - thus inter-disciplinary.
>  Creation of Action Plan for State presentation added critical thinking and synthesis to the mix
>  Addressed minority (diversity) issues
>  The winning of the State competition is the ultimate collaborative thrill - like the 3am pizza party in the computer room, the first time a new system goes into production successfully. Often months or years of work by a collaborative team reach their peak at that moment, as it did for the students on the stage the night they won the state competition - yet again.

 

Question: If you had all of the resources that you would want to have in your classroom, what is the first video-based project that you would have your students do?
Why?

I would use the video medium more as a technology tool than as a communications/media project. Sometimes the integration of technology into the classroom can be subtle, almost transparent. At the other end of video applications in the classroom are collaborative, film-making projects. These projects may pertain to any subject and any grade. Often the video "capturing" and post-editing becomes another collaborative (media/communications) project unto itself - just as rewarding, valid and successful as the project that is the subject of the video.

But it is in the first scenario, video as a transparent tool, that I would implement first as a backdrop to further video projects (further projects in general). The concept of connecting two classrooms via an audio and video "portal" can be a backdrop to many creative educational activities - many of which can be multimedia. It is collaborative in nature. When prepared properly (specialized curriculum development that exploits the cross cultural connection) it brings an education into our classrooms that we have been unable to do successfully in the past. We introduce our children to others' perspectives around the world or around the country or maybe another Geometry class across town. I have taken this concept further, elsewhere, and developed a plan for a Classroom-to-Classroom Portal project. It goes beyond the hardware connection between two classrooms and attempts to establish on-going evolving relationships between two diverse groups as well (like "twinning" classrooms).

As for the first video-based project, it would be "the making of...." sort of video. It would be a documentary about the process of how learning happens or can happen. This is exactly what we saw in the GLEF video gallery. Each of the videos, in its own way was a "The Making of Geometry Education," "The Making of the Key Learning Community," etc. And in some of the videos, as we saw the video capturing process is transparent (or tries to be) to the subject of the video.

I don't know how much preparation each teacher did in all of the videos to know each of his/her student's specific intelligences. The knowledge should help teachers divide classmates into collaborative teams, assuring a proper mix (synergistic and varying) of skills.

 

:

Is there anything that you want us to be aware of re TEAM?
(open ended question)

  If it's alright, I will address this question separately in another place - perhaps my Spring/Summer Synthesis Journal entry

jg take me home
journal article reviews