Digital Video - Cool Tool!

I was fascinated to learn the use of digital video. As a learner, it was exciting and engaging. It truly gave me the sense of being a designer and encouraged the concept of creativity. As an instructor, it would be a very cool tool to use - but only with careful implementation and planning. It can be very easy to get distracted by the tool and lose focus of what the lesson may truly want to accomplish. As with any tool, it is very important to determing the final goal of the lesson and then select the proper tool that can be used to achieve that goal. (affordance). Also - it would be very important to allow time to teach proper methods in actually using this tool, before creating tasks or assigments for the students to complete. Time and proper working technology are common challenges, but with proper planning - it can be a tool that can generate thinking, learning, collaboration, creativity, designing, excitement and technological growth. Sounds like a cool tool to me.

Podcasts - Another tool for the toolbelt!

I have heard of podcasts, but never really knew what they were all about. After studying more about them and their uses, I was delighted to see the creative possibilities. Just like any "tool" - it is essential to understand the capabilities of various tools. Some users do not use the tool to the capcity in which they are created to do; and some mis-use them. With podcasts, it is essential to utilize this tool with the understanding that they are not providing "visual" enhancement, but rather puts a voice to a particular topic rather than reading text. This can be a tremendous tool for many different uses. By using this tool in the clasroom, it is an effective way to get students to conduct research well enough to be able to summarize it in a format that would be conducive for podcasts. It gives the students the power to be a designer and create while enhancing their knowledge of particular topics. As the podcasts are created, it is also a great way for the students to hear their voices and critique their own learning. Whether it be elementary students hearing their ability to read a story or a high school student listening to their beliefs or opinions based on reasearch - it is a great tool to use for multiple outcomes.

From a business perspective, podcasts can also be a great tool, based on the goal and the audience. As with any marketing or communication tool, it is essential that the tool can reach the audience. Therefore, if the type of message or the goal of a particular message requires audio, visual or text, then the choice of which medium to use is very criticual. Podcasts add another creative way for these goals to be attained.

Wiki's ....... WACK or WONDERFUL?

There are a variety of opinions on the use of wikis. Then when you get into their use in the classroom - it's another varying sway of philosophy in education. I have to admit that I was not a fan of wikis until studying the integration of technology in education. Collaboration is an essential element of education for so many reason. Traditionally, when you hear collaboration - you think "group work". However, collaboration has grown to the level of thinking, sharing ideas, creating ownership, creativity and growth. This is a practice that not only K-12 student should practice, but also higher level learning as well as professions. My original fear of wikis was due the mindset that it was false information, rumors and people's "opinions" versus facts. However, after reading Richardson's concept of wikis - I was fascinated by his explanation of wikis and how it should be used. The concept of wikis being used to "negotiate and create truth" was an eye-opening statement. Due to the fact that there was a study to intentionally print false information and within seconds be edited demonstrates a need for truth. The process of publishing and editing requires "thinking" and research. Wow - what a concept - isn't this what we are supposed to be doing with our students. I began going from wikis's being wack to wiki's being wonderful. What about you - do you think?

Blogs - LOVE them or HATE them?

Blogs! You either love them or hate them. Or maybe your like me and you both LOVE them and HATE them. I love blogs when it comes to "fun" topics such as opinions on where to go eat, which movie to watch or fashion opinions. It is interesting to see what others think and sometimes their opinion helps. I have also liked blogs when inquiring about places to visit or live. It's like getting a real testimony!! Not just the "good" testimonies that business pull to help with their Marketing campaign. It allows you to see various sides/views. However, I HATE blogs when it comes to professionalism and/or serious issues such as relationship and/or health issues. I think this is where people need to be very careful. For example, there are many celebrities and/or professionals who get in trouble for blogging. They put too much of their thoughts out there and because they are influencial in their communities - it can have a negative effect. We all have bad days and if we recorded what we "thought" on those days - we would regret putting those thoughts out there for people to read. Also, when it comes to health/relationship issues - people often make very important decision based on opinions and this can lead to poor decision-making. It often spreads false information rather that the true facts. So what do you think? Blogs - LOVE them or HATE them?

Students as Designers Part 5

In order to affect more students (outside of my classroom). I serve as a dept. chair and it has been a great opportunity for me to affect other teachers in my department who will in turn - affect many more students. In our curriculum meeting the other day - I discussed some of the drop in evaluations that I had done within each of the Marketing classes. Some were teacher centered and some were student-centered. We had a remarkable discussion on the concept of design. I talked with them about taking themselves out of the role of "teacher" and becoming more of a "designer". I gave them ideas of ways to take certain units and designing a curriculum and method of delivery that would cause students to be more engaged. A challenge that I gave them for the 4th quarter was for them to design a lesson that would require their students to actually be designers as well. The end of the year is challenging because high school students are already on summer break! So mentally, we need to step it up and make the classroom even more engaging. We are going to do a share session at our next meeting to see what they have come up with.....lets see if an itser can pay it forward:)

Students as Designers Part 4

We are covering the SELLING unit in my Fashion 1 classes. I am having the students be a designer of their very own accessory. They have to develop a concept, draw it and make it come to life. Once their very own design is created, they have to "sell" it to the class by describing the features and benefits. In years past, I have had students take a product out of their book bag to sell it, but I thought by having them serve as "designer" there would be a better understanding of the concept and they would take ownership throughout this activity. Hope it goes well:)

Students as Designers Part 3

We are continuing with our Project Runway - industry behind the runway project series. Due to the first round of presentations that were "death by powerpoint"...I tried to do a better job of modelling what could make them more creative at their attempt to be designers. This time, during this challenge, they needed to create a flyer. I created a template for them to fill in with prompt questions. I showed them how picture says a 1000 words. Therefore rather than giving "text book" defninitions - I wanted them to understand the concept well enough to answer the question and provide a "picture" that would answer the question. This allowed the students to "design" a flyer that would communicate valuable information by using visual language - a mixture of words and pictures. This approach was much more successful! Students were more "original" and "creative". They appeared to undersand the concepts much better than the previous unit. Less memorization and definitions and more interpretation and application. Getter better:)

Students as Designers Part 2

We had our 2nd day of presentations that the students were giving for their "training" plan. I was disappointed to see that most all the presentations so far were ALL POWERPOINT presentations. They did not use any creativity in training methods. ALthough they did take on the role as a designer and created a training plan - they did not use any activities or creative ways for the other students to learn the information. I did learn something through this process....my students are modeling what they see through everyone who is training them. The see powerpoint so much that they automatically are going to that method in order to deliver information. I did use this opportunity to have a great discussion with the class. We sat in a circle and discussed how much they truly learned from the various presentations. The students feel that they learned it more because of the repeition of having to discover the information, then present it themselves and then listen to each other presentations over and over. We also discussed how each presentation was conducted nearly the same. We then proceeded to critique the presentations to see how they each could be done differently with various forms of different tools and activities make a more engagine atmosphere and cause the "training" session to be more effective. I will also in my next 2 classes do more "modeling" so that I can coach them through the next project runway episode's challenge. On a positive note, the kids are still excited about this being an authentic activity. to be continued.....

Students as Designers Part 1

I designed a lesson that allowed my students to be designers. The unit covers design to production and distribution channel / process of stock handling / inventory. My students are doing a project runway challenge and we are video taping this challenge (just like the real show). The students are taking on the role of a contestant. They are challenged with creating a training plan for employees that cover all of the competencies listed above. They are challenged to create a traning package and presentation that would be innovative, captivate the listeners and an effective process. I provided them with resources that are in a power-point, access to internet and other literature. They had to 1. discover the learning by researching the information and educate themselves first in order to then education the trainees. 2. Then they had to design a training plan. They could do this through whatever "tool" that afforded the learning that they wanted to provide. Some are creating their own powerpoint with "visual mapping" rather than a bunch of words. Some are creating a training manual through Word and assembling it into a binder. Some are creating live illustrations and examples through mini skits. This is exciting to see how they create and design their own method of "teaching competencies" by taking on the role of a trainer themselves.

Gallery Walk

Today in class - I incoporated a gallery walk similar to the assignment we did with the decades artifacts. In our IT class - we all made a powerpoint of a decade and walked around to view the other group's work. In my Fashion class - we created posters of our research of each fashion publication. Rather than having the students do presentation - I had the students conduct a gallery walk. This created movement and more enjoyment. Rather than students (who lose focus eailsy) listening to mulitple presentations, this gave them the opportunity to move around the room and "search" and "sort" through the information that other groups had researched. This was a great addition to the design of the Fashion Marketing curriculum.

don't provide the answers

As a part of the design technique for both my students and teachers (as a dept. chair)....I often provide the "answers" that they have so that I show that I am truly "teaching" them. However, an "ah,hah" moment was ....don't provide the answers. Re-ask them the question OR ask them other probing questions that will help THEM come to the answer. On my deparment meeting agenda - rather than me providing LOTS of information for my new teachers....I am going to ask them lots of questions and provide them with the resources in how to find the answers. Im hoping this will help my novice teachers.

From boring - to engaging

I took a unit that is normally boring to both teach and learn. It's the 9 functions of Marketing. This unit was traditionally taught through Powerpoint presentation and lectures but it was an overwhelming amount of information and very boring for the students to learn. Then I altered this lesson to allow each group to create a poster on one function and each group would hang the posters and do a presentation to the class. This was a little more exciting but as each group would present - the other groups wouldn't really "learn" about ALL functions. This time- I used the "off-loading" concept, as well as ACTS. I created a problem (which was real) - which was to design a brochure for the "intro to marketing" class. The intro to marketing class is full of freshman so I challenged my class to create a brochure explaining the 9 functions in a format that the freshman would understand and appreciate. I paired the groups up into 2 and they had to look up the information in the textbook - learn the definition and then re-phrase it in a simple format. They then had to develop an example for each function. This was much more engaging and the students actually "retained" the information on ALL functions. They also learned a software skill of creating a brochure by using a template in Blackboard. Another great concept in design:)

Sharing Design with others

This week I had the opportunity to share the concept of design and ACTS with my department. As a department chair, I get the opportunity to share alot about curriulum and guiding our efforts in accomplishing department goals. In this weeks meeting, I discussed the importance of "designing" our courses to cause a more effective learning environment. I discussed the components of ACTS and how it can be incorporated into lesson plans. I have 2 novice teachers in our department and they were very excited to hear about these concepts. They feel that this will help guide them in their lesson planning process. Pay it forward:)

Authentic Prolem - A great problem to have

Today I quickly incorporated an authentic problem into a lesson plan. I have a lesson that I teach on the Marketing/Promotional mix. I teach the material then have an activity with the students. Rather than giving my normal activity & examples....I transitioned to "creating an authentic problem." I usually "lecture" on the various types of items involved in a Promotional mix and have student "think, pair and share" examples as I lecture. This time....rather than lecturing - I had the definitions of each promotional mix element on the whiteboard...I then told students that H&M in Fair Oaks mall called me to ask my students to help them with an upcoming fashion show. I asked the groups to tell me a plan that they would propose for each of the elements (Advertising, promotion, publicity, public relations, personal selling). They got very excited and began to work and stay on Task! The concept of an authentic problem is GREAT. I do know the manager @ H&M....and I do plan to sumit their ideas so that I can get feedback from him to respond to the students. In this scenerio - having an authentic problem is a great problem to have:)

Grading as a part of Design

The concept of design has not only challenged me to re-create my lessons, but it also has me thinking of different ways to evaluate my students. I find myslef re-thinking what I truly need them to "master" so rather than assigning students certain tasks that are a part of the grading process, I will either do research or have pre-created worksheets(teacher-created) or if it is student-created - I re-think the need to grade them on certain aspects of the assignment. In addition to looking at the organization of a course, I think its important to re-focus how we grade or evaluate the students on their comprehension of the "design" that we have created. I find myslef grading less, but more effectively. (I hope:)

Blackboard

I really enjoyed the usage of a book club on blackboard. I do silent sustained reading in my classes and I think this strategy will work great! The only challenge I have is that all my students are not reading the same book. They are simply reading a book that pertains to the fashion industry. I need to develop a way to have a discussion on various books OR I need to select one book that all students can read throughout the year.

got me thinking!

Understanding the importance of design, I have started to recreate several lesson plans. I have started a new LP format and have re-thought the "tools" that I am using. I am trying to be more creative in "off-loading" as well as utilizing more effective tools for various types of assignments. I feel a sense of "urgency" to re-create. Ignorance is bliss:) Now that I am learning more, the more I think and the more work I do to make effective changes.

technology "pieces"

In an assignment that I recently did with my students, I had them demonstrate their knowledge of the design elements in fashion by completing a VMA Award assignment. They were required to explore various websites then put their findings and evaluation of the design elements in a powerpoint presentation. I showed/demonstrated the use of the basic creation (using a template) within powerpoint. This allowed not only the reinforcement of content but a small portion of technology usage.

Blogspot

I was very excited to have incoporated the use of blogspot to my COOP curriculum. I normally require my COOP students to submit a journal for their work experiences. In the past - I required them to write in the journal once a week and submit it at the end of each quarter. Many of my students would wait until the end and write in all 9 in one day. I have incoporated the use of blogspot - this makes it wonderful because it not only uses a more modern use of technology but it allows me to see when they are actually making posts. It also eliminates the pain on my arms from carrying tons of journals home each 9 weeks......Love this concept of "design"

Use of "offloading"

I loved the concept of "offloading" - I believe in teachers serving as facilitators in the learning process. Utilizing the document for a reading activity is something I have been looking for! I do sustained silent reading in my class, but it has been always a challenge to ensure students are reading and more importantly - getting something out of the reading. I plan to utilize this style of document for groups to work to demonstrate the comprehension of their reading:)