EDTC 6431 - Research & Information Fluency (ISTE 3)

ISTE 3 - “Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.” 

My Module 3 Triggering Question: 1) what apps/tools/sites/curricula are the best for learning the skills to determine the veracity of news AND 2) what are the most efficient ways (i.e. I am thinking of aggregating apps like Feedly and Google News/Reader) for students to curate varied and verified news source into their daily media diet?

From my research I feel fortunate to say that the best curricula and engaging tools for helping students determine the validity and veracity of the news (i.e. how to know what to believe) is, in my estimation, the non-profit News Literacy Project and their web-based platform and curriculum called Checkology. Admittedly, I am quite familiar with NLP. I was one of the original pilot teachers to partner with the organization back in 2010. I have spoken on behalf of NLP at a news literacy conference in Chicago in Fall 2014 and am committed to carrying on their mission helping to broaden their reach to the PNW. I was also one of the first teachers and classrooms to pilot Checkology before its formal launch in the Summer 2016. I am featured both in pull quote and in two of the testimonial, talking head videos on their website. I feel honored to be carrying the torch for this organization and completely believe in their mission. Back when I began that work we were in the heyday of Obama's first term and could have never imagined that spin and propaganda machine that the Executive could become (thanks Twitter). We need news literate young people now, more than ever before.

NLP has locked most of their videos to their own page but here is one I found on YouTube from 2014 that is well before the concept of Checkology even existed and that two of my former students and I all contributed talking head interviews for. You can see me briefly at about 1:10.

NLP's work is about teaching healthy skepticism and promoting a balanced media diet considering the deluge that young people (and ALL people) are expected to consume today. It is no wonder that so many of us indulge internet outrage over some headline we barely skimmed - let alone had ANY context for. Sadly, many of us rely on the carefully curated echo chambers we've built for ourselves on Facebook or our Twitter feeds with the expectations that they "bring us the news." Considering a health media diet these sources are the equivalent of McDonalds, that is, we can consume vast amounts, become crazed by it and never feel satisfied or likely ever really challenged.

I am excited to have my own classroom again to pick back up with NLP and the work of incorporate news/media literacy skills into my social studies and history courses. 

Other resources I considered in my research and I am familiar with are similarly tools for discerning sources and promoting critical thinking. SHEG (Stanford History Education Group) which my mentor teacher introduced me to this year which promotes critical thinking by analyzing history lessons both through primary source document AND also learning how to put historians themselves into a context and unearth and critique their biases. Additionally, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting which I mentioned last week is another source of news that is promoting lesser known stories and longer-form investigative reporting which demands literacy, patience and consideration of detailed information. 

Lastly, the second part of my questions was concerned with finding useful tools for students building and aggregating valid news sources to one single place/app/feed where they could regularly visit and consume and work towards a well-balanced media diet. I am familiar with apps like Feedly and Flipboard and wanted to see what else is out there. I came across this great blog post on the tech blog Techlicious about the 7 Best News Aggregator Apps. I think that the author's conclusion is there isn't just one aggregator app for all healthy news diets but instead that each one serves a speciality and necessary roll. She details AP Mobile, Flipboard and Feedly - all of which I was familiar with.

In the article I learned of a few I'd never heard of as well, including Nuzzel which at first glance seems great. This app seems geared to transition people out of the echo chamber of your own meticulously curated feed but without too much shock. It still has the social media aspect of sharing and user generated reviews and comments that drive stories. Additionally, it connects with other websites like Reddit to help promote deeper detail and understanding of topics.

Also another she highly recommends is Science News and Discoveries. For any of you early adopter of IFLS out there who feel like I do that its content has declined over the years to clickbait, this app might be for us.

Lastly, here's an NPR Story from Dec 2016 that details the curriculum and application of Checkology in a classroom.


References
News Literacy Project (2017). Checkology Virtual Classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.thenewsliteracyproject.org/services/checkology

Stanford History Education Group (2017). Curriculum: Reading Like A Historian. Retrieved from: http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh

Strokes, N. (2017). Techlicious. The Best News Aggregator Apps. Retrieved from: https://www.techlicious.com/guide/the-best-news-aggregation-sites/

Turner, C. (2016) The Classroom Where Fake News Fails. NPR: All Things Considered. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/12/22/505432340/the-classroom-where-fake-news-fails

EDTC 6431 - Student Expression, Creativity & Innovation (ISTE 1)

ISTE 1 - “Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.” 

My Module 1 Triggering Question: Which tools and procedures are best for recording, editing and sharing student-created podcasts? 

My research has helped me discover a gap in my triggering question. I recognize now that I may have been putting the cart before the horse where recording and production are concerned. That is, well before students are ready to record, edit or publish their masterpieces, they need to familiarize themselves with the medium and deliberately work on the pre-production elements of script writing, editing, reading aloud, and generally understanding the medium. Podcasting is not just talking into a microphone and demands deliberate planning and forethought.

Teacher Tony Vincent warns about the pre-production demands that both student and teacher may be unaware of saying "I've found that pre-production takes over three-quarters of the time to produce a podcast" (2008). He offers helpful reminders to students about determining exactly who their intended audience is and to make careful considerations where language and style are concerned.

Vincent also suggests that writing and recording the introduction last ensures that it reflects a concise teaser for the podcast that follows. This not only mirrors the styles of radio and television, it also mirrors the essay writing process. I have often encouraged students when writing a chunked and scaffolded essay with PEE paragraphs (i.e. Point-Evidence-Explain) to write their intro paragraph last. That way, it reflects exactly what the paper is about and that they are not unneededly pigeonholing themselves.

Considering mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery students need to familiarize themselves with the medium and the myriad genres within podcasting as a frame of reference before creating their own. I remember back to my journalism days in high school and college and the assignments where we were given a sample style and asked to write our next piece as if the sample author had written it. I think this could be a necessary first assignment for students to do a short five-minute podcast either autobiographical or a one-on-one interview and practice in the Fresh Air or WTF style of interview or the cliffhanger narrative style of Serial.

My research did yield some detailed resources to guide students to the best tools for recording, editing and publishing. When my students are ready to begin sampling the variety of available apps, I’ll send them to this EdTechTeacher link.

Greg Kulowiec gives a knowledgeable and succinct video tutorial of Spreaker which not only seems the most intuitive for me, especially where editing by clicking and dragging or selecting and cutting are concerned but also its accessibility. It is available for Chromebooks and for both Android and OSX mobile operating systems. I would encourage my students to peruse EdTechTeacher’s full list (pictured below) of sortable by column, free and field-tested recording, editing and podcast productions apps. (Kulowiec, 2016).

I am hopeful about the opportunities for student voice and creativity in production and assessment. I also believe that podcasts lend themselves well to group projects, considering their multi-faceted production elements. 

One intriguing finding from my research connected with my interest in differentiating modes of assessment. That is, what if we encouraged students to create a podcast in lieu of a research paper. I found a US News article that features an Edmonds-Woodway High School 10th grade English teacher Nancy Branum and librarian Karen Rautenburg who did just that. 

Branum noted that the structure of the podcasts paralleled that of conventional deductive style research papers but allowed, even demanded, for more creativity and intentional storytelling, which piqued student interest and engagement. “Just like a paper, a podcast needs a beginning, middle and end, Branom says. ‘You have to have a hook and an introduction with context. You have to introduce your interviews and you have to be able to decide, well, what chunk of this interview I'm going to take so it makes sense – kind of like evidence from a novel that you put in a paper’” (Pannoni, 2016).

I am intrigued that student-created podcasts could drive student expression through storytelling and critical thinking and differentiate assessments as students interview experts or each other and create primary/secondary source evidence, gain media literacy skills and contribute to our growing digital record of contemporary history.

References
Kulowiec, Greg (2017). Podcasting: Using Podcasts in the classroom. EdTechTeacher. Retrieved from: http://edtechteacher.org/tools/multimedia/podcasting/

Pannoni, Alexandra (2016, Feb 29). High School Teachers Tune In Students With Podcasts: Podcast assignments can show teens another way to tell stories. US News. Retrieved from: https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2016/02/29/high-school-teachers-tune-in-students-with-podcasts 

Vincent, Tony (2008). Creating Podcasts with your students. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/creating-podcasts-your-students