The Digital Story
My intention with creating the digital story was to provide an introduction and establish a learning context for the content module on Scratch programming. With the high interest that students have with regards to video games, the opportunity to design and create original animations and games will provide support to students in terms of integrating the creative and imaginative use of technology into their learning experiences. In order to create the digital story, I selected Videoscribe as the tool to be utilized, and I developed a digital story aimed at Grade 5 and Grade 6 students that would get them thinking about programming and the ways in which it can benefit and support their learning across different curriculum areas. Essentially, I had hoped that by engaging in the modules on Scratch 2.0, the students would come to view programming as a new learning tool that could help develop essential skills through authentic learning situations. Through their involvement in the design process of computer programming, students can utilize technologies, such as Scratch 2.0, that are designed to be flexible, customizable, and adaptive to learner needs, while supporting them in planning for and achieving their own personal goals.
The fact that Videoscribe is a digital animation tool was an important consideration, and I believe that the Grade 5 and Grade 6 students, as the target audience, would be interested and engaged in the animated digital story being told. By creating a scenario and characters that the students could identify with, I wanted my class to consider the importance of advocating for their own learning and striving to be creative and imaginative with their tasks and assignments. By creating a digital story that was almost entirely visual and auditory, I feel that the message would be more accessible to all students, regardless of their reading levels, as the use of text was kept to a minimum. In the areas of the digital story where text was used, I intended for the narration to match and essentially read the text on screen to the students, thereby supporting all learners in the class. The information in the digital story was kept simple and easy to follow while including opportunities for the students to stop and reflect, with limited distractions from an overabundance of visuals or quick transitions. Videoscribe allowed me to maintain a narrative pace that would keep the students engaged without becoming bored, and I aimed to keep the video to less than 5 minutes in duration as a means of maintaining student interest.
According to Coates (2005), an important aspect for consideration is the ability of a given technology to be adaptable to the needs of diverse academic cultures and communities. As a digital tool, Videoscribe was appropriate for creating a digital story intended for an audience of Grade 5 and Grade 6 students, and I believe that it would be a suitable tool for use with students at any grade level, as well as for use in post-secondary institutions or within the professional world. Due to its user friendly toolset, Videoscribe could be utilized by the students in my class to create their own digital stories. The application allows for use at a simplistic level, with opportunities for more advanced techniques and approaches to be applied as the students learn more and become increasingly confident in its usage. Ultimately, another reason why I choose to use Videoscribe to create the digital story for the content module was to provide an example of how the application could be utilized, with an eye on having the students approach this as another learning tool to support and help demonstrate their own learning and understanding in different curriculum areas.
Assignment #3 – Moodle LMS
Marc Prensky (2010) argues that students are incredibly eager to create, but don’t get nearly enough opportunities to do so within their time in the classroom. Access to technology has given students the capacity to design and create far beyond the scope of student projects in the past, and one of the goals in creating my content module within Moodle was to further provide opportunities for students to make their learning meaningful and relevant. To help facilitate the integration of creative learning through technology into classroom and educational settings, I hope that we can approach the notion of technologies for learners by creating opportunities for students to plan and design their own games through various programming and design options.
Although I had some limited previous experience in working with Moodle, I found developing the introductory module to be challenging. At times, I felt limited by my abilities with creating in Moodle, as it was difficult to develop my ideas into the course while maintaining an organization and ease of use that would be suitable for students in Grade 5 and Grade 6. My ideas sometimes seemed too large and beyond the scope of my Moodle abilities, and I often had to settle for what I was able to create, rather than what I had hoped to create. One significant learning piece that I will take away from this experience is that the amount of time required to create and develop the module content far exceeded what I had initially planned for it to be. When working with Moodle for Assignment #3, I felt that I had established a reasonable starting point for the online course, and I found that I was able to add details more readily into the content. In accordance with the feedback that I received on Assignment #2, I went back into the introductory components and added additional information that the students would require as they started to work within the online course. By adding these new details to the course introduction and goals, I believe that the progression of the course flows more logically and will more effectively support the students in understanding the organization and expectations.
Bates’ SECTIONS framework (2014) states that assessment should also be influenced by the knowledge and skills that students need in a digital age, which means focusing as much on assessing skills as knowledge of content. In turn, this encourages the development of authentic skills that require understanding of content, knowledge management, problem solving, collaborative learning, evaluation, creativity and practical outcomes. Through the inclusion of relevant and practical project work in the Scratch 2.0 course, students will have opportunities to demonstrate a high level of skill and imagination. For Assignment #3, I have developed the first three weeks of content for my students, and I tried to maintain a balance between guiding the students through the course content while still providing authentic opportunities for students to create, experiment, and problem solve. I used Canva.com to help create the GUI for my Moodle course, and I aimed to implement a design that allowed for ease of use with Grade 5 and Grade 6 students. Visually, the organization of the course is (I hope) simple for the students to navigate, while maintaining a learning flow that will both engage and challenge them at an appropriate level.
Anderson (2008) discusses the ways through which the affordances of the web can be leveraged to enhance generalized learning contexts, and the importance of the roles that collaboration and reflection play in creating these contexts. The Scratch 2.0 course is centered around student collaboration and communication, as the students are required sign up for groups early on in the course, and these groups will work collaboratively in discussions, problem solving tasks, and designing and planning a final project. Prensky (2010) states that “it is important for teachers to understand that what today’s students want to create, and can create, is not the stuff of the past, not the same old homework essays, science projects, and construction paper assignments that have been used for ages and were the basis of their teachers’ education.” Through the collaboration and exchange of ideas within the course, students will have opportunities to design and create according to their collective interests and goals.
As I had mentioned previously in my reflection for Assignment #2, Anderson’s (2008) ideas around the overlapping attributes of learning offer insight into how online and blended or flipped learning environments can move us away from the constraints of didactic content and traditional learning models. The Scratch 2.0 course is intended for students to complete outside of classroom time, as the focus of the learning during school hours will focus on the discussion and collaborative support around the content reviewed within each module. In this way, we can benefit from more active, collaborative classroom learning through more meaningful, engaging conversations and interactions. This removes the lecture component from classroom practice and shifts the emphasis onto the students to learn and engage with the content at home.
References
Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University.
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a Digital Age. http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/(Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)
Coates, H., James, R., & Baldwin, G. (2005). A critical examination of the effects of learning management systems on university teaching and learning. Tertiary Education and Management, 11,(1), 19-36.
Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Publishing.
Here is my digital story: