Trout

Trout
Brown Trout

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Blog Rubric

An assignment for my graduate course was to choose a rubric to self-evaluate a project that I completed during the course.  I chose a Blog Rubric to self-evaluate this blog.  The following blog is what I chose to use for this self-evaluation.  The results are as follows:

Critical Reading = 4
Critical Thinking = 4
Creative Thinking = 4
Quality of Entries = 4
Community of Practice = 4
Total = 20/25

I feel that this blog does include several links and tries building that community.  The reading and thinking levels are adequate for the audience that the blog is intended.  The pictures and setup seem creative.  The blog could use more updated posts as well as a more polished writing.  



Blogging Rubric


CATEGORY
Expert-5 points
Master-4 points
Apprentice-3 points
Novice-1 point
Critical Reading
Blog entry shows evidence of thorough preparation through critical reading and reflection thereby demonstrating an integration of relevant concepts, ideas, and principles. Author speaks as one who has a breadth and depth of knowledge.
Blog entry shows evidence of preparation through reading and reflection with some integration of ideas. Author speaks as one who has knowledge to share but at minimal depth or breadth
Blog entry shows little evidence of preparation through reading and reflection. Author speaks as one who has knowledge to share but without depth or breadth
Blog entry shows no evidence of preparation through reading or reflection. . Author speaks as one that has nothing to offer.
Critical Thinking
Blog entry demonstrates use of upper level thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) and illustrates a thoughtful approach to the content. Author demonstrates growth in their thinking.
Blog entry demonstrates moments of upper level thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) and illustrates a thoughtful approach to the content. Author demonstrates growth in their thinking.
Blog entry demonstrates little upper level thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) focusing primarily on knowledge recall and illustrates a forced approach to content. Author shows signs of growth in their thinking.
Blog entry demonstrates no upper level thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) and illustrates a careless approach to content. Author shows no sign of growth in their thinking.
Creative Thinking
Blog entry conveys evidence of creative thinking through original ideas and the integration of various forms of media to supplement the writing throughout the entire entry. Author demonstrates a new way of looking at an idea.
Blog entry conveys evidence of creative thinking through some original ideas and the integration of some forms of media to supplement the writing. Author demonstrates an intriguing but not necessarily new way of looking at an idea.
Blog entry conveys an attempt at creative thinking but the ideas are lacking and additional forms of media add little to the entry. Author demonstrates an effort to be original but needs to further develop their ideas.
Blog entry conveys no creative thinking. Author demonstrates a lack of interest or ability to present a new way of looking at an idea.
Quality of Entries
Blog entry is clear, concise, coherent and easy to understand demonstrating elements of a strong writing style. Blog entry demonstrates a polished, professional quality with few, if any, errors.
Blog entry is mostly clear, concise, and coherent with a nice writing style. Blog entry is polished but has some errors in standard written English that rarely interfere with understanding.
Blog entry is not always clear and coherent making it difficult to understand at times. Blog entry lacks publication quality as it contains several errors in standard written English interfere with understanding.
Blog entry is not clear, concise, or coherent and pays no attention to style. Blog entry should not be published as it has frequent and severe errors in standard written English that interfere with understanding.
Community of Practice
Blog entry and blogger demonstrates active participation in the blogging community by connecting, commenting, and hyperlinking. Author demonstrates a scholarly approach by connecting major ideas back to original authors via hyperlinks and citing resources as well. Replies show careful thought to the comments of others and they reply in a manner that promotes conversation. Replies show careful thought, challenge peers to think critically, and spark scholarly dialogue and community building
Blog entry and blogger demonstrates an attempt at participation in the blogging community by connecting, commenting, and hyperlinking. Author demonstrates a scholarly approach by connecting major ideas back to original authors via hyperlinks and citing resources as well. Replies show some thought to the comments of others and promotes conversation.
Blog entry and blogger demonstrates little participation in the blogging community and lack signs of connecting, commenting, and hyperlinking. Author demonstrates a lack of a scholarly approach by not connecting major ideas back nor citing resources. Replies are surface level and do not promote conversation.
Blog entry and blogger demonstrates no participation in the blogging community. Author demonstrates a no scholarly approach. Replies are not provided.

Score: _________/ 25
Comments: 

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Digital Story Using my Cell Phone.

For my Wilkes course we needed to create a digital story using our cell phones.  I chose to use USTREAM live broadcaster application on my iphone.  I downloaded the application and used it to video a live feed answering the prompt.  The prompt was, "I knew I was going to be an educator when..."  The video was a close up but I was handling the iphone as well.  Check out the recording here http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/11130353

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

EAA Trout in the Classroom LIVE Broadcast on USTREAM.

My class will be hosting a live show on USTREAM on November 18th at 12PM.  The show will consist of students sharing facts and information about brook trout.  Tune in and check it out!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

EAA Trout Hatch Project: Learning through Social Networking

At the Easton Area Academy, I am working with the high school science teacher on a project through Trout Unlimited.  We currently have trout eggs in a darkened tank in our school lobby, and will be following them through the process with our students as they become fingerlings.  To keep my students engaged and interested in this long term project, I plan to use Twitter and Paper.li for updates, questions, resources and more.  A more detailed project description follows:

“The EAA Trout Hatch Project Daily”

Goals: To enhance our Trout Unlimited Trout Hatching Project, I will encourage student involvement through the use of Twitter and Paper.li so that students can easily view updates and news on trout and environmental issues as well as share information on the progress of the eggs as they advance to fingerlings.

Objectives: The students will create locked Twitter accounts and follow my @shawnmcentire account as well as @EAATroutHatch and classmates.

Instructions: Students will create a “safe” Twitter account using the laptops provided by the school district.  They will use the Edit Profile feature to “Protect My Tweets” and will be instructed to follow me, as well as the @EAATroutHatch project.  They will then need to bookmark our Paper.li site http://paper.li/EAATroutHatch which will take our Twitter stream and extract links to any news stories, photos, videos, and so forth, which it then analyzes to determine whether or not the stories are relevant.
After everything has been set up, the students will refer to Twitter and to our Paper.li to find out more information about trout in general, and about our trout, specifically.  I will use the @EAATroutHatch account to share photos and videos of the trout progress, and students will be encouraged to tweet questions or comments relating to the project.

Evaluation:   Evaluation will be ongoing.  Student participation will be graded based on tweets and interaction, using the rubric pictured below. 


View my Twitter account here:  http://www.twitter.com/EAATroutHatch 
View our Paper.li here:  http://paper.li/EAATroutHatch  

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Evaluation of 3 Web 2.0 Tools

Wordle

Wordle is a web 2.0 site that you can generate word clouds.  The words you use the most will grow larger in your Wordle.  The audience could be anybody.  You can change the style, font, colors, etc.  It basically represents a word gallery.  This site is easily accessible and has no advertisements.  The content is very simple in that you only add words.  You have a great range of colors, background, and fonts to choose.  The page loads quickly and the layout is simple for the user to navigate through. Wordle has a FAQ section for this looking for help.  You can also view the Worlde blog linked to the site.  This is a free site to use and has a well stated puropose.  Overall I think Wordle is a great site for student use.
Overall composite rubric score is 66 out of 72

Wallwisher

Wallwisher is a web 2.o tool that allows the user to create a wall that he can post notes on.  It has a variety of uses that can use notes to post on a wall. The audience could be anybody.  You need to register to use this site.  Wallwisher offers a variety of setups.  You can modify background, themes, colors, fonts, etc on this site as well.  Within each note the user can post text, images, graphics, and videos.  It is easy to navigate and very user friendly.  The site is free and shows no advertisements.  Students should have access to this site at school.  It seems to be a great way to collaborate within the classroom.  Wallwisher would be excellent site for students to post discussion questions or any collaborating work.  Teachers could post assignment through Wallwisher that include media to assist in student learning.
Overall composite rubric score is 63 out of 72


Bubbl.us

Bubbl.us is a web 2.0 tool that assists the user in brainstorming.  It helps the user organize thoughts.  It basically allows the user to create an idea web.  The audience would be anyone as well. It seems easy to navigate and user friendly.  You can move bubbles and change fonts and colors.  You can have a login for this site or just create a web without a login.  The site allows you then to export your finished web.  No advertisements are added and there is a link to Facebook.  The content is very clear on creating a web to organize thoughts.  It is very easily to add tabs and move them as needed.  This site seems to be a great way to have students organize thoughts for many projects or written responses. 
Overall composite rubric score is 60 out of 72

Three Human Filters:

The first human filter pertinent to me is a social network such as Twitter.  Twitter allows others to share ideas and great web 2.0 tools. I have found many great web 2.0 sites through followers in Twitter.  Not only do others share sites but the ideas they sued with these tools.


The second filter is Diigo, which is a social bookmarking site that helps me, search and organize web 2.0 sites.  It is easy to look for sites that I find while searching the web and collaborating with peers.

The third human filter that is pertinent to me is my districts bookmark link within the districts webpage.  It allows teachers the ability to add site when needed.  This has been a great way for me to find web 2.0 tools that I can use within my classroom.