Group items tagged

She and her mom were proud that she had done her own research. When she said that she got her information from Wikipedia, I suggested that she might wish to include her source on the project, but she did not want to. She did not know if she would be presenting the project to her classmates.

My concern was not just about the credibility of using Wikipedia for academic purposes. The reading level was too advanced for a typical third-grader. Researchers (Anderson, 2012) have found the overall readability of numerous Wikipedia articles too difficult for many readers.

How is the research process introduced to elementary students, particularly for using the internet? Are learners provided an age-appropriate online tutorial? Is there a standards document indicating skills that students should be developing in elementary grades for using technology to conduct research?  What guidelines/templates are students provided for developing their projects? Are they provided a checklist/rubric for how projects would be graded? Who sees their projects?  How do you make parents aware that their children will be doing internet research and that their children’s “online safety” has been considered?

elementary learners can hop on the Research Rocket at the online portal Kentucky Virtual Library: How to Do Research and find an interactive and engaging tutorial designed just for them. Content might also benefit classroom lessons and discussions, particularly in K–2 when

ibrary media specialists in the School District of New Berlin (WI) developed a series of research guides and templates, organized by grade-bands. Templates for grades 4 to 6 combine a checklist or rubric.  Lankau, Parrish, Quillin and Schilling (2004) developed the Research Project Guide: A Handbook for Teachers and Studentsfor Humble Independent School District in Texas.

Symbaloo, a social bookmarking tool, for this purpose. The Elementary Research Guide focuses on the Super 3 and Big 6 research models for grades K–2 and 3 to 5, respectively. Presentations on the Super 3 and Big 6 models, posted on Slideshare.net, illustrate that educators value both models.  

it worked best to have consistency across schools,

Through the pilot, we learned that even though consistency is good, we need to give the students as much flexibility and freedom as possible so they can personalize the device and put the apps they want on it. That way they have ownership and feel responsible for the device.

The initial deployment includes tasks such as asset tagging, kitting and custom imaging. The tablets are removed from their retail packaging and assembled into “kits” as necessary — for example, adding a headset and case — and given an initial charge

A tablet initiative should involve extensive professional development and training for teachers and IT/support staff

Involve teachers in the planning process.

Provide teachers with a variety of opportunities

Don’t neglect professional development/training on new equipment for technology staff

Procure a stockpile of replacement devices to prevent learning from grinding to a halt due to a device problem

Areas to measure include attendance, student engagement, teacher and student feedback on the

learning experience, student outcomes, test scores, levels of independent learning and use of collaboration

TABLET INITIATIVE CHECKLIST

Here’s a quick checklist to follow:

From there, publicize a target timeframe for the tech rollout, and be transparent about it. If there are setbacks, explain what happened and why. Keep employees engaged and up-to-date on what’s happening. Ultimately, this engagement will help you get to the finish line with your goals for this new technology solution. Because if people aren’t positively motivated, even the best new tools won’t be helpful.

Finally, it’s important to understand how long an implementation cycle can take. Because of the nature of today’s consumer-led technologies, this is often a process that can take more than a year or longer.

For example, you can have the right technology implemented poorly.

Or the wrong technology implemented correctly.

From your perspective, you’re bringing improvement—saving employees time, allowing them to be more flexible, improving productivity, improving sales and profits, etc. But from employees’ and departments’ point of view, you’re rocking the boat, telling them to change how they’ve always been doing things, give up precious tools, learn and carry around new devices and the like.