Brian Melrose's EDTEC 700 Blog

• Overall, I am pleased with how my two different sites turned out.  I like their layout and how easy it was to modify them to give each a specific theme and character.  I was also pleased with how quickly (once I learned) it was to modify each page into a blog and post new items.  If I was actually able to have my groups create and upload podcasts, I would love to give these characters even more authenticity by having my students create and publish podcasts.
• The best lesson I learned that I learned from this site was how manage all the items that I wanted for my student sites between the actual time and energy that I had to build the site.  I also learned that by completing a prototype of the final project can give you a much more accurate idea of how much time and energy it will take for your students to build something similar, and by going through the process you can try to provide scaffolding (such as graphic organizers to help them mold their characters and posts or job aids to help build the site) that tripped you up when you were building.  Essentially, actually working to design a final product, rather than just the basic design itself, allowed me to help my students much more when they are actually building their sites.

• Since my project deals with the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, I would most likely introduce the project to the students at the end of the previous unit (which usually wraps in the early 1700′s).  By this point, I would already need to have the entire project set up online, so I could assign groups and give out access to the actual sites.  In terms of introducing the project to student, I would have this set up as a long term project, which students would work on in place of some homework.  I think this would help to create interest in the project, while at the same time taking away redundancy in the work students are completing.  Students would complete a collaborative session first, where they design their character (the only information given to them is if their character is a patriot or Tory), and see how well they work together as a group.  The next few days would cover how to modify their site, and design it with the collaborative features of a wiki/blog.  I might have the group complete a practice assignment to instill confidence in how to modify their site.  I would also have them determine the workload in terms of posts and comments, so students already know what is required of them in terms of posting beforehand.
• Logins, passwords, and permissions would be the most time consuming aspect of this project.  Since I am using Google sites as my base, my students will need to have Google accounts.  I will already have the students emails addresses (if they have them) by having them complete a Google form on the first day of school with their email address (along with their parents contact information).  During our time introducing Google sites, I will use a survey feature to determine who already has Google accounts, and ask those students who do not have Google accounts to sign up.  For those students who cannot or choose not to obtain a Google account, I will create two accounts per class, one for patriots and the other for Tories, that students without Google accounts can use to modify their pages.  I would not inform them that it would work on other student groups, but I would require that they sign their actual name anytime that they modify a page (if they are using the classroom account), or else their group would not receive a grade.  Any student that is found vandalizing another groups page would automatically be booted from their group and would have to complete another alternative assignment instead.  Lastly, since I am the creator of all of the sites, I would own them and the final ability to modify them.  At any time, I could determine that the site needed to be shut, and would be able to do so quickly and completely.
• The best way to protect student privacy is to close the webpages off to anyone that is not signed in to them.  I am able to do this in two ways.  I can either limit viewing access to anyone who does not have the web link (so you would not be able to search for it), or I could close off viewing to anyone who is not granted access.  Since I would like to allow parents to see their student’s work, I would most likely use the former option.  The using of fictional characters as opposed to individual student blogs or pages, and using historical illustrations or student created pictures as opposed to student photos also limits their connection to unknown people online.   If needed, this project could be moved from Google sites to Edublogs, but may lose some of the simplicity or common knowledge to protect students.  For this particular project, I would not have to worry about my own personal privacy, as I could use a professional Google account (as opposed to my personal Google account) to set up all of these pages.  There would be very little interaction with students outside of class online (if any at all), as most problems would be communicated with me through email.
• If I were to present this to my administration for approval, I would definitely have my sample pages complete and ready to be viewed beforehand.  I would also present the security and safety features that I had already enabled to ensure that my student’s are protected, and could not use the technology used in this project (specifically, my Google sites) for negative behavior.  By showing the final product and ironing out all the questions beforehand, I feel this would make administrators much more at ease about letting their students collaborate online.

• Although my objectives deal with both the quality of the responesse as well as the development of the site, the focus of the evaluations will surround the quality of the responses.  The grading of site development will help determine group participation, and I will be asking them to make changes to the site to help illustrate the personality of their character.  If students keep the same backgrounds and basic design that they were given, they will lose points in participation.
• Part of the total evaluations regarding their responses will be to watch the character’s responses evolve over time, and change as the different events happen.  If their character gives the same response after each event, it is clear that they are simply answering their questions as 8th grade students, and not as their characters would.
• In order to determine my site’s effectiveness, I will look at multiple factors to create a ongoing assessment and make changes as I need to.  These factors will include…..
• the consistency and at which aesthetic and structural changes are made will directly relate to how well easy I have made it to change the format of the site, and how well I have instructed them on making changes (directly relates to confidence in ability).
• I will also look at email received about problems making changes or fixing problems, chatting with students online during class and when they are working on their site outside of school hours, and discussions and surveys about issues with the sites during class.
• For the actual evaluations, I will use the same rubric for both their posts and comments.  Each post will be worth 10 points, and each comment will be worth 5 points each (groups will be asked to provide 2 comments total on 2 different pages for each post).
• Follow this link to see the rubric used.

My final project will be to create a series of wikis for 8th grade students in U.S. history.  In groups, students will develop fictional characters who are either patriots or loyalists (Tories) in the period leading up to the Revolutionary War.  Each character will be given a short back story, and students will develop opinions for their character after major events leading up to the Revolutionary War.  Their characters will post opions their take of the events from their point of view.

1. Audience: The students who will be creating these fictional personalities will be 8th grade students.  While many of them have have experience with posting comments or status updates, they have many of them have little to no experience with creating pages, or fictional characters.  So in order for the students to be successful, they will need some instruction on developing characters, but also keeping track of webpage development and how to fix problems and mistakes.
2. I would like my students to be able to develop post, and create arguments either supporting or opposing one side or another.  I would also like them to use evidence to support their argument.
3. While there are not specific examples of people using wikis to develop student interest in the revolutionary war, there are several examples of students using wikis collaboratively.  The specific examples that I found dealt with students completing peer reviews or feedback on assignments, group authoring, and fan clubs for historical figures.  This website offered multiple ideas for student use of wikis.
4. Students will have four main objectives that they will need to fulfill to determine student success:

• Given a major historical event leading up to the Revolutionary War, TLWBAT describe how either patriots or tories would feel about the event, and how it affected the movement towards the revolutionary war.
• Given a different part of the country or occupation, TLWBAT describe how these factors may affect their perceptions of events and their responses.
• Given a google page, TLWBAT to sign in to the page, edit the content on the page (including photographs), and save the changes.
• Given a google page, TLWBAT to find a earlier version of the page, revert back to that earlier version of that page, and update to that earlier version.
• Given a google page, TLWBAT to open the chat window and have a discussion with another learner using the communication features on the google page.

1. There are several different performance drivers that need to be addressed that may derail student confidence or performance:

• Skills/knowledge: Students may have the ability to modify or update statuses, but may not know how to modify entire webpages, or create new pages for a wiki, or more importantly how to fix mistakes that are made.  Training, practices, and basic hob aids job aids may be necessary to help create student confidence.
• Motivation: While students may not have a intrinsic motivation to complete the wikis, they may have an interest in developing their characters, or using them to argue their own points.  Students may also be motivated by the anonymity.  Although other students (as well as the instructor) will be aware of what groups are assigned to which person, students will be allowed to speak their minds through their characters, as well as take ownership of their characters.
• The students will be working on this project in two separate environments.  The first environment will be in the classroom, under instructor supervision, while the second environment will be on the student’s personal computers, without direct supervision.  In order to encourage students to behave responsibly online, it will be necessary to discuss how their are consequences for all comments or actions done to pages, and how these items can be tracked.  Because some of the collaboration will have to be done online, it will also be important to show students how to collaborate while on the website and work on a single page at the same time.
• Student incentive will be directly tied to the students confidence in their ability to create a successful product.  Since there will be two different viewpoints, the different groups will be competing to see who has created the more effective argument, and whose side is “right.”   5

• My original idea for this project was to utilize blogs for their posts and comments, but after the presentations on google sites and wikis in class, I have decided to utilize google sites for this project.  I am going to use google sites because it has the collaboration elements of a wiki, but will still allow the control elements of a blog.  The other elements that I like about using google sites is that students will need to sign in to modify the pages, which makes it easy as the instructor to observe participation and comments.
• Each page will be separate and individual from other pages, but still created under my google account.  Since I would be utilizing this with multiple classes, I might simply create a class set of pages for one class, and then copy the format of the pages for my next class (I would most likely need 8-10 webpages per class).  Since not every person would be able or allowed to have a google account, I would need to develop a group account, username and password so students would be able to access the page without having to create a google account, and then have them post their names to their posts.
• I will need to make several customizations to each group’s webpaes in order to allow certain groups of students to access or modify the pages, while allowing other groups to only leave comments. In order to prepare groups for this, the majority of the work developing the pages and modifying access will be done before students even see the pages.  When a new assignment is given, I will be responsible for posting the assignment in an announcement that would go across each page.  In order to do this, I will need to learn how to link all the pages back, so I can create a single post that goes across all pages rather than uploading to each individual page.

• When my students visit their site or other students sites, I I would like them to be able to read all of the different posts, post comments on other students posts.  I would also like the students to be able to follow links to researchable websites or sites about the events. In essence, I would like students to create discussions about the information discussed in class that goes beyond the original assignment.
• In order to have students collaborate, each group will assume hte identity of either a Tory or a Patriot, and each group will create a identity and backstory for that character.  The creation of the person’s identity and backstory will be completed and posted in class, so students will already a template to work from.  Each backstory will include the person’s gender and age, their occupation, location, and marital status.
• After every classroom discussion, students in their groups will complete a worksheet that outlines their character’s thoughts on the event and how it affects the movement against England or the movement to stay with England.  Once they began, their outline, they will need to complete their post either in groups either in class or at home, and post comments (as their character)  on another character’s page.  While the group will develop their responses as a group, each person will be responsible for at least one post and two comments on other pages during the course of the project.  Since it is possible to see the authors of posts, it will possible to track who is responding.  The day after posts and comments are due, the collaboration worksheet will be turned in to determine student participation.

I have three basic ideas for my final project, all of which will deal with middle school students using blogs and wikis to help them develop their ideas around history and social studies. Since I currently do not have a classroom, I will use 7th and 8th grade as my audience, since the majority of my experience deals with this age group.

1.  My first project would apply to my 8th grade students and would have them design blog pages which would support the different sides of the Revolutionary War.  Students would be put into groups as colonists or loyalists, and would need to gather information about their different groups and their beliefs.  Their overall project would be to create a argument as to why people should join their side, and posting new information as we move along in the content (the Boston Massacre and subsequent trial, the Boston Tea Party, and the events surrounding Philadelphia in 1776.  As each new event is discussed in class, each group will take the events and discuss it from their point of view.  I was thinking blogs would be easier to track, but wikis would have a more “viral” or raw quality that would be appropriate at this time.

2. This project could be used with either 7th or 8th grade students, and would utilize blogs to discuss current events.  Starting a few weeks into the school year, a new student each week would need to research a current event going on in the world and discuss it on the blog.  7th grade students would try to find articles dealing with the civilization or part of the world that we are currently studying, and 8th grade students could focus on national events dealing with their local, state, or national government.  Students would need to submit their blog or changes by the required deadline, and other students would be able to comment on them.  I like blogs because I can then watch students comments and see how their discussion flows on the topics and relates to the class curriculum.  I was debating on using blogs or wikis, because blogs are good but can be time consuming to follow, and wikis are easy because students can modify the content easily, but earlier topics are eventually lost.

3. The last project idea could relate to several topics discussed in 8th grade social studies, but the particular topics I was thinking it could be relate to would be to the civil war or slavery, the California gold rush, the Indian wars of the 1870′s, or the industrialization and urbanization movement of the late 1880′s and 90′s.  In this project, students would be put into pairs and be working as different interest groups that could be harmed/benefit from the events that would be going on.  Each group would need to use a wiki and build a page for their interest group, discussing how the events going on are helpful/harmful to their cause.  Groups could also be state representatives in congress, and discuss how they are going to vote on certain issues based on the beliefs or needs of their state (if their was a law attached to the issue being discussed).  Students would need to visit 2-3 other groups, wikis, and post comments to them, adding how they might convey their message more effectively or issues that are confusing.  At the end of the unit, groups would post a concluding comment, and discuss how this change would either help the nation as a whole or take them down the wrong path.

Hey Everyone,

My name is Brian Melrose and I currently live with my Wife, baby daughter, and dog here in San Diego.  I have been teaching Social Studies for 4 years, and I taught P.E. as well for the first 3.  Here are three things about me.

1. I am a avid Batman fan.  By avid, I mean slightly crazy.  I love any and all things associated with Batman, and saw Batman Begins 5 times in theaters.

2. Before I was in college, I actually was an amateur Muay Thai fighter who fought in the US, Europe, and Thailand.  My final record was 22-4, but I never went pro.

3. I was born abroad, and visited about 10 countries before I was a year old.