Rock the Vote! An Animoto Visual Argument

Rock the Vote!
(click on this to see my Animoto)

After I learned to use Animoto, I was wracking my brain to come up with a relevant example that would be a powerful 30 second visual argument. The midterm election was the next day, and I was concerned that my students would not vote. After all, in my first posting I discussed the importance of having a voice in this democracy, so I came up with this idea, took my camera to school and twisted a few arms. In about an hour, I assembled this sample visual argument that I could use in class the next day. I was really excited, and immediately, my mind was flooded with ideas about how this tool could be used.

The next day I collected a bunch of images that made an argument: a mylar smiley face balloon, a poster persuading students to take a Jane Austin literature class, a poster persuading students to collect books for African orphans, another persuading students to attend an art show, and several brochures and booklets persuading students to engage in activities of various social agencies. I put these up around the room and asked students to explain how the elements of each sought to persuade the viewer. Which were effective? Why? To what interests did they appeal? We discussed images, text, color, arrangement. Then I introduced Animoto, taught the class how to make one, and showed my example. I asked them to plan a visual argument Animoto as a group using a wiki to select a theme, collect images and find statistics, quotes or words that supported the argument. I advised them to fool around with making an experimental Animoto first to get the feel of the tool. Finally, I assigned in individual argument Animoto. The group and individual Animoto are to be posted in their portfolio. They are to write an introduction for each, which will take the form of a rhetorical analysis.

I can't wait to see what we create!

It's Midterm Time (not "T Shirt Time")!

It's midterm and we are having conferences, real conferences! I am taking the luxury of at least one half hour with each student, first and foremost, because I believe in longer conferences, and second, our small class size makes it manageable. I am delighted that I can continue to do this next semester because Ann (Russell), bless her heart, has had our classes capped at 18. In the past I have taken only one day for ten minute conferences, but I am taking two days this time because the use of our e-tools allows me to do so. Students continue working quite independently researching and reading, posting their time and activity in a blogger like this one.

I should probably explain what we have been doing thus far. We have posted introductions on Blackboard and in Google sites being used as on-line portfolios, used wiki workspaces to collaborate on a research project to produce a Power Point (revised by each student), written letters of proposal for individual research essays, used Delicious to keep annotated bibliographies and started research journals posting time/date/activity to produce argumentative/persuasive essays. An overall reflection is posted for the entire portfolio and our activities thus far, as well as short introductory reflections for each activity in the portfolio. All of this, except Delicious, is kept in the portfolio. I should also mention that we had an informative research module conducted by one of our librarians so that students are more comfortable using databases for research. And I taught APA for the short research piece.

When I confer with each student, we look closely at all the material that has been produced, and I ask the important question (stolen from Ann), "How would you describe your own work?" There are three basic answers:

A/B range

Revised assignments are excellent/good

All assignment are complete

Attendance/participation are excellent/good

C range

Most of the above requirements are met

I (incomplete)

Missing assignments

Work does not reflect your best effort

Absent/tardy

I ask about revisions, point out areas for improvement, give suggestions, etc. The wiki and the blog are particularly useful to us because they track the effort, participation and time spent on assignments. Finally, I ask what areas students would like to work on in the final portfolio, and their plans for the final research project. Of course, students can revise any piece further for the final portfolio, and there will be another opportunity to use a wiki workspace with the group. This was the area of greatest weakness for the majority of the class, but they recognize its value and are enthusiastic about improving as they learn about the possibilities for using this tool. It was also surprising to me that so many students did not know how to write a formal letter.

At this point, I think my students are more involved in the writing process and the work they produce feels less artificial than writing three essays based on readings I have assigned. I feel like I am giving them tools, but they are doing the driving, making the choices and, with my guidance, going in directions that are of interest to them and their peers. As a result, there seems to be more actual interest in the quality of the work, improving the use of the tools as well as producing writing and projects that they take pride in. I see more independence and interdependence, less hand-holding on my part. Everything feels more organic to me. And organic is good isn't it? Healthy? Onward to Animoto!

WIKI, WIKI, WIKI!

We used the new "mobile computer laptops" Neil obtained for us. Very cool! Since the class is so small, everyone had a computer to use. I had to move too quickly for my comfort because another teacher needed the computers the last half of the class. That gave me about an hour and a half to accomplish our goals. Everyone was able to get a gmail account, set up a portfolio (Google sites), get into an interest group based on information posted on Blackboard last week, and set up a Wiki workspace (PBworks) for our Powerpoint assignment for next week. By that time I had to get the computers packed up and hustled to the next teacher, who, it turned out didn't need them after all. Whew! Onward for the rest of the class, a discussion of Chapter 1 and a procedure for using Wiki to work on the Powerpoint assignment.

Problems: There were a few mistakes made with the portfolio because students didn't listen to instructions and plunged ahead with choices, like choosing the wrong type of site (education). Neil had warned us about this, but I caught it too late. I couldn't immediately remember how to delete a site and will have to look that up for next week. Naming the site is important so that it can be read on my list. We used WRT 1020/01 and the student's last name so that I didn't get Pookey's Place appearing as one of my sites. I still have to sit down and help students make some corrections next week. There were questions about cutting and pasting the Blackboard introduction into the space and adding photographs. Other than that it went smoothly and students were kind of thrilled.

I introduced the Wiki by showing students the Commoncraft.com wiki explanation. This is so clear and unintimidating! Brilliant simplicity! Next I shared the wiki site Marian and I set up as an example and a sequeway into the Powerpoint assignment. (We had used this wiki to collaborate on instructions for the assignment.) I distributed printed copies of this assignment as an example for them to study and as a list of instructions for each slide in the Powerpoint. We discussed how the tasks might be divided: opinion finder, fact finder, illustrator, references co-ordinator. Students could contribute to more than one role and have a page on the wiki for each part of the assignment. The reasoned opinions could be proposed on another page after all the other work had been shared.

The final part of the class was devoted to a discussion of Chapter 1 and how to set up an inquiry using a focused question. I pointed to the example in the text about "Drivers' Licenses and Photographic Identification"and did a sample cluster on the board. We had planned to use Inspiration for this, but it was not a program that had been loaded on the computers, and I didn't have the computers at this point anyway.

Then I asked if the class could think of current controversy. They fell into my hands like ripe fruit! The Mosque-9/11 Site controversy! I put the focused question "Should a Mosque be built near the 9/11 site?" in the center circle of the cluster, with branches shooting off for positive and negative arguments and a third way. They filled in what they had heard. We discussed the need for facts and informed opinions. I just happened to have an article on the subject! Yay! We revised the question, agreed that more accurate facts were needed, and considered what opinions were valuable vs. those that were uninformed. Their reasoned conclusion was based on legal standards and considerations for consequences. I told them to use this procedure in the wiki space as a model for their homework. Using the information they gather, they should be able to assemble a Powerpoint rather quickly in class next week. Of course, I am going to ask for the computers again. We'll see how it goes.

First Class Meeting

Yesterday I met with my 1020s for the first time. This is a very small class (13), which should be helpful since we are working on introducing so many new concepts this semester. Neil's movable computer lab should work perfectly with this group. I plan to use his Mac laptops in class next week for our next assignment using Wikis. I still am not sure how to do this but Marian and I will work on ironing out the details tomorrow.

I did show the YouTube video "A Vision of Students Today" by Mike Wesch, but the discussion was pretty shallow. After surveying my students, it turns out that that vision doesn't really apply to the students in my class who have far less experience with computers than the sudents surveyed by Wesch. Also, only two of my students have cell phones that connect to the internet, which surprised me. I would guess that it is due to the expense. Only one student has used Twitter and she seldom uses it. Eight use Facebook. I was also surprised by that. Everybody uses Blackboard. A few have never used YouTube. A number of students admitted to Facebooking in class, ignoring the teacher. Their concerns are not global for the most part. They are interested in doing well in the class and getting a job after graduation. There is little interest in politics or social and economic justice. Only one person seemed to have a heightened awareness of what is going on in the world or the necessity of having an informed opinion, much less a voice or how to raise it. Marian's idea of having students write a letter to the editor seems even more important now.

I also referred these students to the half hour video by Wesch at mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg "Toward a New Future of Whatever" to explain how their concerns became so localized. I am betting, however, that few will look at that. I plan to reference it again next week after we discuss the first chapter of the text and view a video on the pastor in Florida who plans to burn the Quran on Sept. 11, in spite of requests from the U.S. government and Gen. Petraus not to do so because of the dangers it may cause for U.S. troops and the general exacerbation of tensions between Muslims and the United States. This development is significant in terms of their personal interests. but they have to be able to make the connection.

Launching the New Semester

Marian and I gave our presentation on electronic portfolios yesterday at the annual "opening day" meeting of the composition faculty. As usual, the meeting was running late due to much chitty chatting, so the time we had to present was more limited. At the break before the presentation, people fled from the room, having made an appearance, and we were left with a much reduced audience, most or all of whom are already putting their student portfolios on line one way or another. It was more than disappointing that the very people for whom we designed the presentation were not there. Anyway, it went well enough. As usual, I learned a few more tricks from Marian whose preparation is always so thorough. Overall, I would give the presentation a C, or maybe less, because we failed to reach our target audience. I am going to mention the dispiriting effect of come-late-leave-early audiences to my students (and teachers, when we meet again), and the importance of commitment to an undertaking. Attitude is significant in all matters.

On the brighter side, Neal informed us of a lovely development. We have 10 band new macs laptops to use in our classes! They have cameras, and we can make movies to upload on Youtube! I don't know how to do this, but I am going to learn (with the help of my students). I have plenty of ideas for assignments related to argument, and we have a nice section on images as arguments in our text (From Critical Thinking to Argument, Barnet & Bedau).

Right now I have to focus on using a Wiki, since that is one of the first assignments Marian and I are giving. There is a nice little intro to Wikis on Commoncraft.com that I am going to use to introduce them to my students.

If Sarah Can, Can't You?

"To blog is to teach yourself what you think."

(Shelly Blake-Plock, from "Why Teachers Should Blog", teachpaperless blogspot.com)

I've been trying to overcome my resistance to using e-tools to teach. It is ever so much more comfortable to do what one knows and does well. Besides, technology is changing the way we communicate so swiftly, that I find it difficult to keep up. I no more than learn to use (not master) Blackboard, then I have to learn online portfolios. What about Facebook, texting, Google docs, blogs, Twitter, Animoto, Wikis, podcasts, Youtube and, as I learned last night, Google Wave? We lament the decline of writing skills and the lack of interest in learning them as our students' minds wander off into the digital world. We have to go there. That's where our students are and that is where they are writing and reading, debating the world and expressing their thoughts and feelings.

Peter Elbow claims that "voice empowers individuals to act in the world" and that voice is "the individual identity of the writer working in a community" (Burnham, "Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory, Theory/Practice"). Burnham cites Thomas Merton who speaks of the purpose of education as teaching students to define themselves "authentically and spontaneously in relation" to the world. Tie this to blogging, to "teaching yourself what you think."

I think of how Sarah Palin influences Senate and Congressional elections with her shoot-from- the-hip blog. I think of the Muslim cab driver stabbed by a drunk inflamed with rage by irate discussions about where a mosque/cultural center should be built in NYC. And what about the daily rants regarding immigration? Words matter. Voices matter. They are being expressed and heard, not in letters to the editor, not in reasoned essays in respected magazines, but on twitter, blogs, Youtube, wikis and viewed on the internet accessible now from your phone. It is uncomfortable to have to master the tools of the digital age, but it is a matter of necessity. Along with teaching reasoned argumentation, it is urgent that we do so. We cannot afford to slide into our comfort zones while democracy slips away.

With all of this in mind, I will struggle to learn to use e-tools to teach my students. If Sarah can do it, I know I can. So can you. Add one e-tool each semester. You can start by checking out "11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year" by Richard Byrne at freetech4teachers.com. And ask for help when you need it. Bet your students can assist you!