Edublogger Concerns: Bullying or Teasing? & How often to use Technology?

      In flipping through many of the suggested Edublogger websites, I noticed that there were a wide array of interests covered by teachers. Some were using technology to supplement student learning with video games and online language learning and math tutoring sites. Some were relating the issues they were experiencing at school, to their own lives and families. Some were merely tracing the events of their life, with sprinkled in happy teaching moments, when students were particularly engaged or had some sort of "Aha!" moment. Most of the English teacher blogs I looked through were dealing with the issue that David Theune spoke to us about...audience. One teacher mentioned that she didn't necessarily have to go outside the classroom to find an audience that students would help students be more dedicated and work harder to present a good project; she found that audience in their peers.
      This English teacher began full-class workshopping in a high school class, which was something that I did not experience until college. This is a workshop where all students are asked to write a particular piece, but only a few student would have that piece workshopped by the entire class. Everyone in the class was expected to read the piece, give physical feedback, and come to class prepared to have a lengthy discussion about how that writer could improve the piece. Students are then asked to revise the piece multiple times, and form small groups where they workshop the various revisions together. In this case, students are motivated to do well because they will be under the scrutiny of an entire group of people, rather than just their best friend who they may or may not be motivated to work well for. In college, I found that this was an excellent strategy that motivated me to produce a first draft that I was proud of, and knowing that I would be expected to change my paper significantly throughout the revision process, made me motivated to revise multiple times and revise well. Some professors that I had would enter the better pieces into writing contests, which was a huge motivator to me, and something that I would suggest to this teacher as an additional motivator or reinforcement for producing great work.
      The two Edublogs that I actually commented on, were ones that focused on issues on how to tell the difference between bullying and teasing, and on how to talk to parents about using technology outside of the classroom. The first was interesting to me because I have been experiencing a great deal of teasing in my placement middle school, and I have often wondered whether the teasing is actually just teasing or more severe. According to the article posted on Elona Hartjes' blog, bullying is more explicit than teasing in that bullying is a repeated act performed by an individual who is attempting to make another powerless; in other words, there is an inherent power struggle to bullying. This is why, Teresa Fisher's article notes, negativity directed toward students with disabilities is almost necessarily bullying if it is between a student with a disability and one that does not have a disability. The power struggle is inherent in that relationship, where the student without a disability works to make the student with a disability feel powerless in the relationship. I found this distinction between bullying and teasing to be very helpful in my thinking about how to approach student negativity at school.
      The second blog from Bud Hunt focused on using an iPad outside of school. Hunt notes that oftentimes when there is an assignment, students will come up to him and say, "How long does it have to be," to which he responds (to the students' dismay), "As long as it needs to be." We grad students know that answer well. He relates this question to one he finds similar, "How long should I spend on an iPad?" or more often from parents, "How often should my student spend on an iPad?" Hunt responds that the task on an iPad should take nearly as long as the physical task. So, if a student is asked to create a movie, they might have to spend a great deal of time on an iPad to complete that task. I noted in my comment that although length of time and relativity are implicated in both questions, the second is more likely to come from parents who believe that students should not be spending all of their time using technology. Parents are told to limit the amount of time students are spending playing video games and watching TV, and they relate using an iPad to those things. IPads are technology too! Whereas the former question typically comes from students who are actually asking, "How little can I write to get by on this assignment?" There is a struggle here in that a teacher cannot say to parents, students should spend 30 minutes a day on an iPad, but it is also difficult to help parents understand that the iPad is a tool to supplement their learning and might actually make learning more efficient.

Prezi

   There were several Tech Tools in Use presentations that were interesting and informative, but did not present on tools that I found myself likely to use in the classroom, or to supplement student learning. For instance, I presented on Padlet, and although the tool is easily accessible and it makes it possible for many people (teachers, students, educators and the like) to communicate on one screen, it also requires strategic implementation. If I would like students to make use of the Padlet wall, I must be able to expect that they have access to the internet and a device. I may use Padlet to present a wall with particular information in class, but if I wanted to engage with the more interactive aspects of the tool, I would have to find some way to access technology in the classroom. The same can be said for Voice Thread and Socrative. Both require students being able to access technology. Prezi, on the other hand, is used more as a presentation tool, and could be used in the classroom in place of Power Point. The group presenting argued that Prezi is more than just a fancy Power Point, and I immediately disagreed. Prezi seemed to me like a Power Point that made people dizzy, however, after the presentation I thought of some ways to implement Prezi that might be more beneficial for students than a Power Point.
    Power Point presentations move only in a linear manner. If one is presenting on a topic that necessarily calls for the use of linearly sequential information, then Power Point is a great tool. For instance, if I was presenting the summary of a narrative for an English class, and it was necessary for me to organize information in a chronological order, a Power Point might be the correct tool. However, if I were to present on a topic that was more relational than sequential, Power Point would still work, but Prezi might offer a more clear and comprehensive method of presenting those relationships. Last week I was teaching my 7th grade students about the ingredients that make up a mystery story, including types of characters, problems, settings, clues, etc. I wanted the students to be able to organize the information in a way where they would see how the topics relate and combine to form a mystery story. In this case, the genre 'mystery' is at the center and characters, problems and clues work together to make up the mystery. Although I could present this information in a Power Point, it occurred to me that it would make more sense to present this information in Prezi, where I would be able to create a presentation that takes the form of a concept map. In this case, the spatial organization of the information is important for student learning and understanding, so Prezi makes more sense.
   The group did note that there are some disadvantages to using Prezi including, it might make people sick as it jets around from one topic to the next, it takes more time and thinking to create as you have to be aware of not only the information but the spatial arrangement as well, and it can only be accessed online. Whereas tools like Padlet and Voice Thread seem interesting and useful for me to use once in a while as an option for summative assessments, for students who are interested in and have access to technology, Prezi might be the type of tool that I could implement often as an English teacher. I would not necessarily ask my students to create Prezis, and rather offer it as an option along with Power Point, but I myself could use the tool more than I see myself using Voice Thread or Padlet. I would just have to be careful to move slowly, so as not to make students sick!