Engaging Writers with Technology in a Home-School Workshop

Charles (Chuck) Elliott

Wenli (Victoria) Liu

Victoria (Tori) Mazur

Nada Wafa

Video Link: https://youtu.be/fqdULurISaM

Research-based Rationale 2

Lesson Implementation 7

Challenges and Successes 9

Collaboration 12

Research-based Rationale

Based upon the research of what learners need to engage their whole brains in the

Conceptual Age (Pink, 2015), we wondered how we could leverage technology to help

students overcome their fears or hesitations about writing. We approached this workshop-

style inquiry project with transmedia. Transmedia influences the way students learn in various

ways. It helps student explore, engage, look at the world in a different way. It enables the

student to understand a meaning in multiple modern ways. Transmedia also broadens

students learning styles, and engages students in their way of learning. Therefore, students
become more motivated and value the importance of writing. Through transmedia, students

of different interest in subject areas become engaged, thus, if there are students who don’t

enjoy writing, they can find other forms of understanding and processing, as well as express

their writing through transmedia.

This helped us approach our PBI by understanding the new way of literacy instruction,

and understanding that transmedia is not only related to storytelling and literacy, but more

toward a way that text is portrayed in various formats and ways that engages, motivates, and

aligns with students interest. It’s important for us to have the mindset that the result is what is

important.

These students learn through pictures/images, visuals, and this is what the new

generation is exposed in every single moment of their day, especially through social media

(Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc). This generation mixes literacy and images

together, whether by writing/typing comments, updates, status, tweets, on still images, and

more. The storylines and messages are all that is important in this time and age, therefore,

students think in images and we have to connect with them through mixing images and literacy

together.

The benefits of marrying traditional formats with new literacies is that “part of the

evolution at this point is developing an ability to interact easily with all types of media, including

social media; to remix them into a different presentation...and to access additional, related

media within the primary source” (31). Students are involved in taking their knowledge to the

next level, and become more engaged in their learning, which is a powerful learning process

to do. Once the students are engaged, they are able to build on it, and their creativity,

innovation, and skills begin to flourish.

Our learning objective focused on students being able to participate in collaborative

conversations and use group-generated ideas to apply ideas that they learn about the brain

in a creative digital format. We worked with a multi-age group of learners ranging from first

through third grades in a homeschool setting.

 We are modeling stage 3 of The Integration Of Technology In Learning by working with

students in a collaborative home-school setting “eroding the traditional classroom” (Heick,

2014). The ability to have these young learners bring their own device truly exemplifies what

it means to learn anywhere and anytime. We can disrupt the non-flexible curriculum in this

environment and bring in concepts that aren’t traditionally included in the state standards,

while addressing core literacies of viewing media, reading new forms of text and, creating

technology-enhanced products to demonstrate new knowledge.

We included an interactive model of the brain to engage students with labels that pop

up when they tap a particular area of the app. A traditional book does not allow for selection

of information at-will. A typical diagram is static will labels and sidebars, often taught as “non-

fiction text features”, but the app engages the learners with the content in this new form.

Engagement is one part of the Triple E Framework we can use to evaluate how we

integrated technology for the learning goals (Kolb, 2011). The goal for integrating technology

in our lesson was to engage students in the process of writing. Our compelling question asked

how we could use technology to help students overcome fears and hesitations about

writing. At the outset, we believed we could design technology-enhanced activities to open

doors for creativity, enhance and nurture learner interests and in the long-term improve their

writing skills with transmedia. We designed our lesson to be more of a workshop than a class

and the learners, being home-schooled, are already in a more flexible environment. The

workshop was designed so learners could work collaboratively as they are multi-age to meet

Common Core Anchor Standards 4 and 5.

ELA Anchor Standard 4

4 Use digital tools and resources to produce and publish writing and to interact

and collaborate with others.

 With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools and resources

to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

ELA Anchor Standard 5

5 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused

questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Participate in shared research and writing projects.

NCDPI (2017).

Our workshop also addressed technology standards for students revised in 2016 by

the International Society for Technology in Education, or ISTE.

1c: Empowered Learner: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and

improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

1d: Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate

the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their

knowledge to explore emerging technologies. (ISTE, 2016).

We wanted our learners to have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in

creative ways that would engage them enough to overcome any hesitations about writing. Our

learners were introduced to concepts about the brain through a carefully crafted question-

embedded video via Edpuzzle. They interacted with a model of the brain and worked

collaboratively to summarize their learning by creating a Paper Slide Video. Finally, they

reflected on their experience writing with technology using a Flipgrid.

Learners engaged with video with stopping points designed to chunk larger concepts

into bitesize pieces that require thinking before moving on to the next section of the video. We

chose a video about the brain because it helps “illustrate complex, abstract concepts through

animated, 3D images” (National Teacher Training Institute, n.d.) and young learners are living
in a transmedia world where information is presented graphically all around them. We chose

to engage our learners with questions in the video to promote the active theory of viewing in

contrast to passive viewing. This decision came about from a group discussion about having

students “take notes” while watching the video. There was concern that this particular age-

group would struggle with what constituted key or relevant information from the video;

therefore, the use of EdPuzzle with the selected YouTube video would help the students not

only chunk the concepts but also allow them time to respond and reflect on what was being

shown in the video rather than just playing the video and expecting them to “pick up” on the

key concepts. Using this type of question-embedded video also allowed for assessment.

When students answer questions, they are provided with instant feedback in the form of a

green check or red “x” as indicators of correct answers. The data is also instantly viewable by

the teacher who can step in and redirect misunderstandings promptly.

After viewing the video, we chose to have students produce their own video

demonstrating a key point about the brain. We wanted them to synthesize the information, as

this is a necessary trait in the Conceptual Age (Pink, 2005).

Students should feel that the video is an integral part of their learning experience, so

teachers need to follow up the video with culminating hands-on activities, student-

centered projects, and student- or teacher-designed investigations. (National Teacher

Training Institute, n.d.)

Our culminating activity was a student-created paper slide video, in the style of Lodge

McCammon’s 1-Take Videos in which students work together to learn content and decide how

best to teach it (McCammon, 2015). This strategy helps learners to collaborate, think critically

about what they are learning, be creative and innovative, while sharing their ideas with others

(McCammon, 2015). The act of creating paper slides with others exemplifies several skills that

the Partnership for 21st Century Learning identifies as essential, including the ability to:

“Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively” (P21, 2015, p. 3);

“Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication
skills in a variety of forms and contexts” (P21, 2015, p. 4) and “Understand and utilize the most

appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions” (P21, 2015, p. 5).

While this was not a full-blown video production, it was the first step in generative

media literacy (Jacobs) in which the learners were producing with the technology to express

information.

Our compelling question about how technology would help alleviate writing fears was

captured in our post-workshop reflection.

Lesson Implementation

According to our compelling question that how can we use technology help students

overcome their fear of writing, and regarding the fact that the topics our students recently study

are related to science, we decided to connect our writing topic to the human brain, to attract

their interest and reduce their fear to writing.

The lesson consisted of five parts: assessing prior knowledge of the topic, interacting

with a video, exploring the brain’s parts and functions, creating a paper slides movie, and

reflecting on the learning experience.

At the beginning of class, students were asked about the number of brains they thought

they had, which helped them to assess their prior knowledge of the brain to guide the

discussion to talk about how the brain has two hemispheres as well as different parts that

perform various functions. Once this study was completed, students worked in three small

groups to view a YouTube video about the brain using a web tool call EdPuzzle that allows

users to embed narration and questions within a video. Students were assigned three

questions throughout the almost five minutes video, which would enable the students to

engage more with the media as well as provide the teacher with information about student’s

understanding of the information presented in the video. Two of the questions were multiple

choice, and one was a typed response. Students watched the video and collaborated on the

questions. The decision on the number of questions was based on the time allotted for the
lesson. We wanted the students to have more time to explore the 3D Brain App and create

their videos.

After the video, the students were then given time to explore the 3D Brain App. This

app provided the students with both visual and written information regarding the parts of the

brain and their functions. The students were able to click on different parts of the brain to see

them highlighted as well as get information about what it does and what happens if it is injured.

This information was to be used as the basis for their Paper-Slides Video. Once the students

had explored the app, they were given materials and directions to create their videos in pairs.

Each group was required to write a script and create visuals for their videos.

Through brainstorming time, students in each group decided in which way they could

relate their stories to the topics if they should include words in their work or not, and their

responsible story parts. Though students felt excited about writing differently, some of them

thought it was not easy to come up with a story basing on the brain function that they just learn

from the video and 3D apps. Eventually, with further guidance and explanation from the

teacher, students composed their stories together and kept practicing before recorded their

slide stories.

As wrapup for the activity, the students were asked to reflect on the experience of

learning writing in a technology learning environment.

Challenges and Successes

Successes:

We brainstormed many more options for student creation than we could implement in

one workshop-style session. Narrowing it down was a process driven by the devices available

to the students and to the group members who implemented the lesson. Choosing apps

requires knowing what operating systems are compatible. Fortunately, many web-based
options only require a browser and are therefore device-agnostic and could be accessed

whether students had an iPad or a Kindle.

Our learners included story elements such as beginning, middle, and end. They

compromised and negotiated with one another to include ideas from both writers to include in

the team’s story. Our goal of collaboration and shared ideas was achieved, even if they

deviated from the topic. This is a part of the writing process which would be called

brainstorming, as well as drafting since it is an expected first step. Time constraints of this

project did not allow for us to move through other writing processes, such as revising and

editing. However, Nada could certainly revisit their writing in future sessions and build upon

their first attempts.

A few successes that I have noticed throughout the implementation of the class were

students engagement through the use of technology, collaboration, creativity, and willingness

to learn new information. The students enjoyed using the iPads, answering the questions on

EdPuzzle, navigating through the 3D Brain App, and recording their paper slide presentations.

I really enjoyed seeing their creativity burst, and how they worked together to come up with

their stories. They tried their best to relate their stories to the topics they were assigned. For

example, the group who were assigned “The Hippocampus Best Holiday,” related their story

to a combination of Halloween and Christmas. Lily wanted to do Halloween, while Ryan

wanted to do Christmas, so their story was a combination of both (werewolves and trees). The

other group that were assigned “The Hypothalamus First Marathon,” related their story to

temperature and running. The third group was assigned, “The Visual Cortex Goes to the

Museum,” and they made up their stories about the things they saw at the museum. The

message was underlying there, but we were able to decode it pretty quickly even though the

students had not mentioned the parts of the brain, but they did express the function in their

stories.

Furthermore, all of the students are really good friends with each other, and seeing

them working together on a project was rather interesting. They enjoyed sharing what they

wrote, and were very eager to listen to each others final stories.
Challenges:

All the students quite enjoyed the technology environment, but we noticed that some

students still lacked confidence in their writing. We noticed that there was one boy who was

fascinated with the Youtube video and 3D brain app but was somehow reluctant to write, trying

to avoid it. However, at the end of the writing session, he and his partner came up a good

story.

Some of the stories were of concern, as they included details about a gun, but the

inclusion of societal elements from the world in which they live and current events mirrors what

real writers do. The questionable elements were brought to the parent’s attention after the

lesson.

Students ultimately took their stories in their own directions. When we reflect on our

compelling question, the technologies we used to engage our learners in gaining knowledge,

generating ideas, and then working together to create a product certainly empowered

them. They did not stick to the “script” of writing about the brain, but they produced stories

that resonated with them based on their age-appropriate need to understand the world around

them. One possible approach to adjust this in the future might be to include an introductory

activity where the students are asked to use a specific app/tool that will be used for an

assignment later on in the course. This introductory activity would not necessarily be

structured around a specific standard or concept but rather it would allow the students to

become comfortable with the app/tool so that there would be less “discovery” taking place

during the future assignment and students would be able to focus on the content rather than

the app/tool. In our case, the students would focus on the elements of the brain and what it

can do rather than on the actual creation process of the video because they would have

already experienced that side of the activity.

Teaching is such a personality specific profession. It was challenging to create a

collaborative lesson and then not physically be there to see its implementation. Also, working

on a lesson without having interacted with the students or having personal knowledge-base

of who they are and what they can do was challenging. Along the same lines, we all have
different educational backgrounds and experience so that was challenging to create a lesson

plan for an age-group that some had never taught or worked with in the classroom.

As the person who taught the lesson, the most challenging part was making the final

project with the time we had. The first part of the lesson was implemented smoothly, but time

was a constraint when it came to assigning each group their topic, then coming up with a story,

writing the script, editing, drawing the script, and videotaping. As mentioned previously, there

were students who did not want to write. The students were self-led, as they are used to this

type of structure since it is a homeschool group, and instead of writing, a few of them prefered

to skip that step and draw their stories. Another group prefered to draw and write at the same

time. We had about an hour to complete the project, thus, the time we had was limited and

what we did the best we could with the time we had. Another challenge was to keep the kids

stories on track. Their imagination would take them to many different topics, and I had to

remind them about their assigned topic.

Collaboration

Most of our meetings were held weekly via Google Hangout. There were times when

one or more members could not attend due to traveling for work or because of

illnesses. Shared Google documents, however, always kept us informed and on track with

our goals.

We all brought different cultural and professional experiences to the table. It was

beneficial to work with individuals that may not have had the interactions with students and

families that others may not have. Also, we were all in various levels in our professions so

we were able to draw on each other’s strengths to help create not just this project but to also

create and implement a lesson to benefit students.

We each learned something about ourselves as collaborators and how technology

could help us transcend our challenges. Collaboration, particularly in this distance learning

environment, can be both challenging and beneficial in ways that differ from face-to-face
collaboration. Our class is a diverse mix of full-time graduate students and working

professionals taking courses part-time. This particular group encompassed a diverse group,

including uncommon teaching backgrounds with regard to experience and the grade spans

with which we have worked. While this could have led to conflicts of ideas, it actually

worked in our favor when considering our compelling question and how to approach our

unique group of home-schooled learners. We were able to bring a variety of perspectives to

our project.

Scheduling our virtual meetings was manageable, but evening meetings after a full

day of work or other coursework made for some long days. A benefit of the technology we

used was the sharing of documents ahead of time; coordinating with a digital calendar that

was integrated in the Google ecosystem with the Hangouts program. Everything worked

well most of the time.

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