A GAME I am Losing

As an educator, I’ve developed ideas and some have proven to be successful and others fell flat on their faces.  I am nervous that my current GAME plan is in the process of completing a graceful swan dive. I need to make some changes in order for any further progress to be made.  

In my previous post I reported that I completed the initial building of a website for my program.  I created the website using weebly.  It took hours.  My plan was to have each of my students create a weebly as well.  I would then link each of their blogs to the class site.  This would broadcast our classroom activities to the community.  I also reported that weebly is blocked on my district’s server.  This is going to be the death of my plan. 

Here is the weebly I created:

www.wavetvnews.weebly.com

I placed a request for weebly to be unblocked in August BEFORE school started.  One of our Engineering teachers also asked for the site to be unblocked.   She hopes to use it as an online portfolio like I do.  Unfortunately, the site is still blocked.  Two months later.   Students cannot access it at school.  I’ve made multiple attempts to get the site unblocked.  My school’s Instructional Technology Specialist also made several attempts to contact the district.  No changes have been made.  This causes frustration because this site is what was recommended by other broadcast journalism teachers in the nation.  They gave me the suggestions on our listserv.  A few also suggested wordpress, but this requires a server to run.  This is not available to me.  

So, I thought I would scrap weebly and just trash the website I spent hours on.  I tried to look for other alternatives.  I haven’t found any.  I cannot find an easy to use website creator that also works well with video.  To say I am frustrated is an understatement.  My entire GAME plan hinges on a website.  Do any of you have ideas?

So, here I sit under a pile of posters I designed and printed using QR codes for the new website, students who are eager to create websites, and no way to move forward.  My students are still completing self-assessments using Google Drive.  I just wish they were able to post them online for the community.  

Any website suggestions?  I want it to look professional with an option to blog and post videos.  Essentially an online portfolio.

GAME Plan: Current Needs and Obstacles

Implementing my plan seemed very easy on paper, but I have encountered many obstacles.  Both of my goals depend on using weebly.com to create a website and support students in creating their personal websites.  

Needed Resources:

I have developed an issue with weebly.com and the internet block on the internet at school.  My classroom is equipped with 10 iMacs connected to the internet; however, these are deemed useless without weebly.  I have requested, through our IT department, to have the site unblocked.  This may take weeks.  

Intended Learning Strategy:

I have already completed the assignment sheet with extensive project requirements for my students.  Unfortunately, I cannot assign the project until the website is unblocked.  I have students who do not have internet access at home.  Until the site is unblocked, students are emailing their blog posts to me.  These posts act as their self-assessment for each week’s production.  The blog post does contain the content I wanted to engage students with.  The website was more of a polished way to post and evaluate their work.  

Steps I Have Taken:

So far, I have created the class weebly to share with the community.  I have not shared the link yet.  I want to wait until each student’s blog is linked to the page.  The community can still access our public schooltube page:www.schooltube.com/channel/wavetv 

Once the class and student weebly accounts are complete, I will change the link on our school’s webpage to reflect the weebly page.  This has been a blessing in a way as well.  My producers and I have decided to redesign our graphics.  We are creating new title screens and lower thirds.  Therefore, when we launch the new weebly page we can also launch our new show design.  It is exciting. Below is a picture of our new graphics.  

Technology Integration Goals

I would say that my classroom is more innovative, untraditional, and technology saturated than a typical classroom.  I have always found value in having my students actively engaged in hands on experiences.  I mean, the word technology is even in my course name.  I teach Media Technology (broadcast journalism and film production) on a high school level.  My students lead and produce a daily news broadcast and a monthly cable access show.  They also compete in local, state, and national film and journalism competitions.  As I read the ISTE Standards, I began to reflect on areas I could improve on even more.  

Two standard indicators I wish to improve are “Promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes” and “Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation” (International Society for Technology Education, 2008).  

Goals

Goal 1: Implement a more innovative and collaborative self-assessment system in my classroom.  In the past, my students were required to complete a written self-reflection.  I was the only person to read it.  I would like students to use technology and share their reflections with their classmates and myself. 

Goal 2: Collaborate and communicate better with parents and the community.  In the past, I posted announcements to parents on the school website, communicated using a texting app, and posted our shows on our schooltube.com page.  I would like to develop a program specific form of collaboration.  

Actions

Goal 1: I plan to implement each of my students to create a weebly website.  It is essentially a personal website, blog, and online portfolio wrapped into one.  After each news package or film project, students will post their reflections and behind the scenes topics from the production process. 
 

Goal 2:  I created a weebly website for the program.  It is still in progress, but the bones are complete.  It will include a blog produced by my producers, a link to our shows, list of awards and honors, links to the students’ blogs, and a contact section.  

Progress

For both goals, the progress will be monitored based on a pasting schedule.  Each student must post a blog weekly or bi-monthly (depending on their production style).  The producers must update the program blog each month.  The schooltube page must be updated daily.  Essentially, the upkeep of the websites will show the progress. 
 

Evaluation

          I will evaluate the progress based on rubrics for the blogs.  The websites will include view counts and our facebook page shows how many people were reached.  The website views can show the success of reaching the community.  The participation of students in writing their blogs also determines the self-reflection and collaborative method.  At first, students will not be required to comment on their classmates’ blogs; however, by the second semester it will be a requirement.  

The link:

www.wavetvnews.weebly.com

Reference:

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers