Content Proposal
MySpace Cougar Classroom Supplement
EDM-665 Online Course Development
EDM-613 Media Asset Creation
Education Media Design & Technology MS Program
Full Sail University
Michele Rambo
2/1/10
Abstract
In this current Digital Age, teachers are having a hard time finding ways to keep middle school-aged students engaged and participating in the general education classroom due to the recent advance in technologies. Students are more interested in Internet gaming, listening to their IPods, and/or chatting on social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace than engaging in the traditional classrooms. When teachers are unable to engage their students, and obtain their continued participation in and out of the classroom, student achievement substantially decreases. However, when used properly in conjunction with your traditional face-to-face classroom, social networks can promote detailed threaded-discussions, create a sense of school community, increase student participation, and consequently, their achievement. Because people learn differently, many types of instruction should be administered in the classroom. Because the students of today are digital natives, and in turn, speak the native language of IPods, computers, cell phones, online gaming, social networking, and instant messaging, they have been trained to learn a different way that we did in the past (Prensky, 2001). The digital native, unlike the digital immigrant, has the ability to learn while multi-tasking at a much higher rate. Marc Prensky (2001) states that, “today’s students think and process information fundamentally different from their predecessors.” As a result, if our “students of today’s” thinking patterns, and they way they learn, have changed, then consequently, our teaching styles should change as well. Sites such as Ning.com allow a user to create and regulate their own social network for educational purposes. In addition, already existing social networks such as MySpace and Facebook could be used in the same manner as well. Sites such as these would make it possible for the educator to use a social network to enhance their basic, traditional classroom, and in turn, ultimately increase student participation!
Introduction
Problem Addressed
Student participation in and out of the classroom is decreasing. Teachers are finding it harder to get and maintain the attention of the 21st century student, more specifically that of the upper level students. Because of this lack of interest, students are not doing their homework, not paying attention in class, and are ultimately finding themselves unsuccessful in the classroom. The increase of technological devices has made students uninterested in the traditional classroom setting. Teachers and parents are constantly having to ask their students/children to put away their cell phones, Ipods, and/or stop chatting on the computer. Students are much more interested in playing with these new technological devices, and are subsequently bored with the traditional classrooms setting. To combat this problem, why not give the children what they want? Why not use these devices to teach with?
Our world has drastically changed. Technology has advanced, traditional gender roles have shifted, and the “Leave It To Beaver” household no longer exists. In the past, the man of the house has always been the breadwinner and sole provider for the family. Traditional roles have always informed the boys as they were growing up, that some day they would be responsible for earning a living, and providing for a family. However, due to a shift in the economy, and women wanting to become more independent, it is not uncommon for both parents to take on part of the responsibility of providing for the family. Quite consequently, it has become the norm for both parents to be employed and bringing in an income. In addition, with the divorce rate rising each year, many people have now become single parents, and due to the split, have become the sole provider for their children. Many single moms now have to raise the family, and find a way to provide for them all on their own. As a result of these aforementioned circumstances, many children do not receive as much time with their parents/caregivers as they need. Due to the fact that parents may be working late hours, or may be exhausted from working long hours, children are getting less needed attention at home. Subsequently, things like communicating with their child about the day’s events or simply helping them with their homework often get put to the wayside. Given these circumstances, many children do not receive the much needed guidance and assistance at home. This, in turn, leads to low-performing students in the classroom.
The solution that will fix all of these problems would be to incorporate the use of social networks into the classroom. Those children who cannot receive homework help could now receive online help from their peers and from their teacher by logging on to a classroom social network site. Those children who are bored with textbooks, and only want to be playing on a computer all of the time could now get on the computer for their school work and classroom assignments. This led to the idea of creating a classroom social network site through the use of MySpace. This classroom MySpace page would be used for the middle grades students, and would attempt to create a fun, inviting site that would serve as an extension of the classroom. On this site, students could receive assignments, view a calendar of upcoming quizzes, tests, and events, and have the ability to communicate with others enrolled in the class from their home. In addition, by requiring that the students add every class member as a “friend,” on MySpace, their networking pool of peers just grew substantially. This would create a sense of community, and would encourage communication amongst all students regardless of status McNealy, Nonnemaker, and Blum,2002). They would now have a plethora of people to contact when struggling with a concept or assignment. In addition, parents could now communicate with their child’s teacher on a regular basis via the social network. And so, the “Cougar MySpace Classroom” page was created!
Goals and Objectives
Instructional Goal
The goal of the MySpace page is to improve the lack of student participation in the middle grades classroom. When students do not pay attention in class, or participate by completing assignments, then learning does not take place. Each year of school is supposed to be represented by one year’s growth of knowledge. However, if the student’s are not paying attention to the information that the teacher is trying to convey to them, then ultimately student achievement will not increase, but in turn, be at a stand still. Hopefully, by combining the use of social networks with the traditional classroom setting, the middle-school aged students’ will have a renewed interest in their education, and teachers will have their desired increase in participation levels.
Learning Domain
According to Benjamin Bloom’s “Taxonomy of Learning Domains,” there are three types of learning domains. They are cognitive (knowledge and mental skills), affective (growth in feelings, emotions, or attitude), and lastly, psychomotor (manual or physical skills). By improving upon one’s affective domain (their attitude towards education and the classroom), the door can now be more open cognitive growth (mental skills).
If students do not pay attention or participate in assignments, then little, if any learning is going to take place. Moreover, the cognitive domain, which includes skills such as recalling data, translating and interpreting problems/instructions, applying new concepts, and analyzing data so that it can be understood, will not be improved upon (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2010).
However, if we first work on improving the affective domain, which includes things like, a willingness to hear/selected attention, active participation, valuing other’s opinions as well as their own, etc…then the cognitive domain can be addressed. With the use of the social networks, the affective domain can be improved upon in many ways (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007). Breaking through the social status tiers that middle-schoolers create for themselves can be a huge task. Although, if we encourage communication amongst all members in the classroom through the use of the social network, then acceptance and friendship might occur that quite possibly might not have ever occurred on its own.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives are, “What students should know or be able to do at the end of a course that they couldn’t do before (TLL, 1997).” The learning objectives for the Cougar MySpace Classroom consist of the following:
1. Understand what a social network is.
2. Understand how to properly use a social network.
3. Create a network of peers to be used for collaboration and group work.
4. Know how to create a blog, and/or threaded discussion, and respond to that blog thoughtfully, insightfully, with appropriate language, and in a professional manner.
Presentation
Instructional Approach
The goal and approach of this project is to increase student participation through the use of the MySpace social network by incorporating assignments such as blogs and detailed discussions, and by encouraging peer collaboration/group work to create a sense of community and belonging. If students feel as if the have a part in creating what makes up the classroom, and by voicing their own viewpoints, then they will most likely want to participate in the educational experience that is occurring around them. Moreover, classroom events and such can be logged by a virtual yearbook. By taking videos or pictures of special events, i.e. basketball games, cheerleading events, spelling bees, science fairs, school projects, etc…and then by posting them on the MySpace classroom page, then the students will be more likely to log on and check out the page. In addition, it will give the parents more of an insight into what types of things their children are learning in the classroom, and (by checking the school calendar) what types of events are coming up that they may want to get involved in.
Lesson Structure
Lessons will be a combined structure of discovery learning and cooperative learning (Abromitis, 2009). Discovery learning will be used to allow the students time to decipher the meaning of the writing prompts and to respond to them using their own thoughts, knowledge, and discoveries. This will give them time to explore all of the possible meanings of a quote/prompt, and will also allow time for sharing of their initial reactions that they may have been reluctant to share in the classroom.
Secondly, cooperative learning will be used mainly in the social network arena. Since most of the classmates will be on the computer at the same time, then they can work together to complete assignments. In addition, group projects can be given so that students can work together and learn from each other.
The students will naturally develop and improve upon their interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences through the use of the social network, which are two out of the seven multiple intelligences that Howard Gardner talks about in his multiple intelligences theory (Gardner, 1999). According to Heng-Li Yang and Jih-Hsin Tang, they believe that “based on the collaborative learning theory, it is assumed that learning emerges through interactions of an individual with others. From the perspectives of collaborative learning and constructivism, interpersonal interaction is one of the most important elements or processes of learning (2003).”
In addition, in keeping with the discovery learning theory originated by Jerome Bruner back in 1915, students will have the opportunity to “discover facts and relationships on their own,” which he (Bruner) believed to be the best way for learning to take place (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2010). A good way to apply Bruner’s theory on the social network would be to give an idea, quote, or writing prompt, and give my ideas on the possible meanings of the quote. Then, ask the students to come up with their own opinions on what the quote or prompts mean. They could do this either by making educated guesses, going with their initial reaction, researching the quote, and/or consulting with their peers (Pearson Education, 1995).
Marc Prensky, an “internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning” has written several books about the use of social networks in the classroom. One particular book the he authored entitled, “Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning” is a book which he talks about how to teach and engage the 21st century learner (Presnky, 2001). One way to do this, according to Prensky, is to incorporate the use of social networks into the classroom.
Project Structure and Development
The project’s structure will consist of a Cougar Classroom MySpace page. On the page you will find a class calendar, a link to blogs, a space for commenting, a list of class members, and a link to email the teacher.
Evaluation
Based on formative data, it is necessary to create an even more enticing reason to get the students to sign up for the project. Many were not as motivated because they already had a MySpace page, and were hoping to use their existing one. In addition, this was not implemented school wide, just in one of my class periods. Therefore, there was not much buzz going on around the school about it. I feel that if a social network like this was implemented school wide, and could act as the school website with individual links for each teacher/subject then it would become more popular. However, this project is still in progress, so I will be able to collect more data in the near future.
References
Abromitis, Barbara. (2009, August 6). Successful Lesson Structure for Student Teachers: Develop lesson plans for teaching and evaluation of student learning. Retrieved from
http://lesson-plan help.suite101.com/article.cfm/successful_lesson_structure_for_student_teachers
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books.
Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2010, February). Learning Theories & Models at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved February 8th, 2010 from http://www.learning-theories.com/gardners-multiple-intelligences-theory.html
Mazer, J., Murphy, R., Simonds, C. (2007). I’ll see you on “facebook”: The effects of computer-mediated teacher self disclosure on student motivation, affective learning, and classroom climate. Communication Education, 56(1), 1-17. Abstract retrieved from IngentaConnect.
McNeely, C. A., Nonnemaker, J. M., and Blum, R. W. (2002). Promoting school connectedness: Evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health. Journal of School Health, 72(4), 138-146. Retrieved December 18, 2009 from http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwche/Promoting%20School%20Connectedness%20Evidence%20from%20the%20Natl%20Longitudinal%20Study%20of%20Adolescent%20Health.pdf
Pearson Education. (1995). Jerome Bruner and Discovery Learning. Retrieved from http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_mills_internet_1/0,11172,2580422-content,00.html
Prensky, Marc. (2001, October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved
June15, 2009 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants – Part1.pdf.
Skagitwatershed.org. (1999, June 5). Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains. Retrieved from http://www.skagitwatershed.org/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL). (1997). Teaching Materials: Learning objectives. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/tll/teaching-materials/learning-objectives/index-learning-objectives.html
Yang, Heng-Li, Tang, Jih-Hsin. (2003, September). Effects of social network on students’ performance: A web-based forum study in Taiwan. JALN 7(3). Retrieved from http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/27390/1/v7n3_yang.pdf
It is kind of like taking a puppy for a walk. You give them room to walk, but (in order to guide them properly and keep them safe from harm) you need to keep them on a short leash.
