Ferryway 2.0

Third grader solves a math word problem for her classmates

Students will have more opportunities to think and create digitally as we enter our third year of Expanded Learning Time (ELT).   The Ferrway School has used the ELT grant over the last two years to integrate technology into classroom instruction.  A quick review of blog posts from last spring highlight some of the innovative approaches that teachers used to inspire their students.  Technology Specialist, Robert Simpson, who coordinates the effort with the school’s Technology Leadership Team delivered a short multimedia presentation during an opening day meeting of all faculty and staff.  Download PDF (840kb)

The presentation gave an overview of last year’s activities which targeted grades 3-6.  All students in grades 3-6 had multiple lessons that incorporated the use of the Qwizdom Student Response System.  Qwizdom helped teachers engage all students during their lessons by requiring that they respond to questions embedded in a PowerPoint presentation.  The image to the left shows a third grader solving a math problem based on a question that students each answered using a remote.  Once students saw the correct answer displayed they demanded to know how to solve the problem.  To complement classroom instruction, several Ferryway teachers who completed the digital media workshop class created online multimedia presentations.  Ms. Ambrose, a third grade technology leader, created a dynamic MCAS presentation that students watched with their parents in their homes.  A 3.5 minute photo slideshow was shown composed of pictures documenting last year’s technology integration efforts.  The slideshow was created with Adobe Photoshop Elements, a software program available on the school’s mobile HP laptop cart.

One challenge that teachers face as they confront the vast universe of digital tools is where to start.  A handout on becoming a better digital media teacher was distributed featuring a concept map.  The online version is available on the Ferryway wiki.   Teachers were encouraged to register for the fall digital media workshop series to build their skills.

Based upon student surveys we know that a majority of our students have Internet access in their homes.  One interesting idea to harness the technology skills of your students is to challenge them to create a tutorial on a difficult area of your curriculum.  The idea was presented by Alan November at this year’s National Educational Computing Conference.  I created a  concept map from my notes and shared it as a handout.  What 5 subject areas do your students need more help to master?

The Earth in peril from My CTRL Z

We are pleased to announce that we received an Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) grant this summer.  Ms. Prince and Ms. Mahoney, our 5-8 art teacher, both attended a week-long summer institute on youth mentoring and digital media.  The AYV program provides over $35,000 in software, equipment, training support, and curriculum resources.  The Ferryway AYV program will focus on students in grades 7 & 8. We watched My CTRL Z produced by Vivekavardhini High School students living in Bagalore India for inspiration.  Our students will have the time, technology resources, and 21st century curriculum experiences to learn how to communicate in a media rich world.

Stay tuned to the Ferryway blog to see how we are doing.

Digital Media is easier than ever to create with the software tools and Internet applications available today.   Ferryway teachers gathered today for the first in a series of six digital media workshops designed to build their technical skills in order to meet the Massachusetts’ technology literacy standards.  The workshops will increase the use of technology in Ferryway classrooms by providing high quality training and direct mentoring support.  Teachers are excited to integrate technology into their classrooms, especially since our expanded learning time initiative provides more time for project-based learning.

As the workshop instructor, I have a long history of collaboratively working with teachers to develop curriculum projects that use technology.  In fact, I’ve been in the Malden Public Schools since 1999 managing a number of federal, state, and non-profit grant projects to help teachers effectively engage their students with technology.   I have a strong belief that technology integration can produce gains in student achievement when it fits seamlessly into the curriculum.

Our first workshop was well attended by sixteen teachers and Ferryway principal, Tom DeVito.  Each teacher used an HP tablet computer (model tc4200) from the school’s laptop cart.  Teachers were able to logon and connect wirelessly to the Internet.  Here are some major highlights:

• Registered for a free teacher account on wikispaces.com
• Tried to view the Ferryway school Edublogs site.  Unfortunately, Edublogs was having major service interruptions due to a major site upgrade that had occurred over the weekend.  We will revisit this in our second workshop.
• Learned about embedded media by viewing slideshare.com, a slide presentation sharing site.
• Watched a short streaming movie on wikis produced by Common Craft.  These innovative movies use stop motion animation techniques to teach about technology tools.  Our student can create these types of movies using the Adobe Digital School Collection.
• Examined examples of Web 2.0 in education.  Teachers expressed interest in partnering Ferryway students with international classrooms.  The flatclassroom.com project is a good model.
• Introduced podcasting and recommended using wikispaces as a first step.
• Completed a short workshop evaluation survey.