What is the important educational need that you are
seeking to address? This element is fundamental in this project. Since we have
limited time, energy, and resources, cool technology without a clear sense of
why it matters or what we gain by it is of little value in the educational
setting.
I am High School service Coordinator, and Community Service teacher –
and this year community service has become a graduation requirement for all 9
and 10th graders. In an effort to create a consistent learning
environment as also an environment in which take charge of their learning we
sought to create a technology tool in which students would be able to manage
their service project with more
independence. An essential part of their class is to submit reflections of
their experience through their blogs. They also needed to store evidence for
their portfolios. The creation of digital portfolios in various media formats
meant that from an educational perspective we needed to provide a system that
is aligned to this requirement.
As we are also an IB School, all students are mandated to participate in
the CAS program as 11 & 12th graders. The portfolio of evidence
required for this program is 100% electronic. The educational need thus arises
that students in 9 and 10th graders need to experience and learn how
to manage such a system or one closely designed to it.
How you plan to address this educational issue with
technology? You need to make a clear and convincing case that your
proposed solution will make a real impact on the issue you identify, and that
your proposed approach is a reasonable approach given its costs and possible
alternatives.
After some research and discussion we
decided to use www.21classes.com
system. This pre-designed web template allowed for the easy creation of our
service blog: https://communityservice.21classes.com/. Each
student received their own log in details to their web blog page. They are
required to manage it themselves and are allowed to change the layout and
personalise it. This is a perfect match as it echoes the same philosophy of the
CAS Manage Back system.
The system allows for a foundational
experience in knowing how to manage their own reflection process and store
project evidence. It also enables the school to create their own content aligned
to the CAS system (which is pre-defined by the World IB Organisation). We are
able to tailor make the system to suite our needs and those of the students.
Logistics of solution: For example…What is the
scope? (e.g., when and where will tool be used and for how long? Who all will
use it?)
The website is specifically designed for 9 and 10th graders
who are completing their Service outreach program as part of their graduation
requirement. A key aspect to this tool is its accessibility in which students
can access it from any internet tool – e.g WAP phones, ipads, iphones, etc. As
it is a web based tool it allows students to accessibility at any time.
Although set times are set aside during class in which they have time to
complete their tasks. The tool will generally be used over a time period of 2
years in which students will retain their account.
Once their class has been completed
their information will be placed in an archive for another year before it gets
deleted.
Relevant research and resources (from the Internet
and elsewhere) including reports on the closest effort you can find to what you
are planning to do as well as ideas and materials you may be able to build upon
in your own effort. Your description should include:
The
results of your search (What resources may help guide your project? What
resources may help in the implementation of your project?)
What I did discover was that schools all had webpages dedicated to
Service Outreach or Service Learning. Blogging is an integral part of capturing
the service learning experience and is supported by extensive research
findings. I found a vast amount of information about implementing service
learning, but very little on community service. Although the distinctions are
clearly made, very little information on community service as a High School
topic could be found. The National Service Learning ClearingHouse was a good
foundation from which to begin and had comprehensive resources to help one.
I used some of the information as content to the website for example the
national standards, definitions and concepts central to community service.
Another challenge for me was finding lesson plans or content appropriate to 9
and 10th graders. With the focus on the service learning and the
curriculum – nut much was found that spoke to community service as a class.
In future I would like to expand the resources and dialogue around
community service and the skills development.
What you learned from performing this search. For example, which search engines
did you use? What strategies did you use? What helped or hindered your search?
How would you search again next time?
The internet in itself has become a valuable tool in which to research topics.
I initially started of researching using Google Search Engine. Because the
google search engine is such a comprehensive tool, it was important to use keys
words in which to refine your search. The extensive search results made it
somewhat tedious to find what I was looking for.
A plan for the portion you will implement during
this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.
The website has already been developed and is in use by the students.
Although this pilot class, we have been getting some positive and constructive
feedback.
During: What I want to
focus on is which information is important on the website and what is good to
know, but a need to know.
After: I also want to go
through how the website it set up and why we followed the specific design and
the, manner in which we layed out the content.
I also want to create a video that will explain to student (1) how to
access the website, (2) how to create and post a blog, (3) how to change and
personalize their web blog page
How would you know you were successful?
This I have already got some informal
feedback from students with regards to the website.
I will also send out a monkey survey with
regards to assessing the user friendliness of the website, and technical
operability and navigation flow.