Week Five and Six of my Digital Literacy Journal.
This is a screen cast of the touch chat app. One similar to the one that Sam would use. Each icon is personally developed for his needs. This image is not the one that Sam would use.
Image retrieved from http://edudemic.com/up-content/uploads/2013/04/touchchat.jpg.
Image retrieved from http://edudemic.com/up-content/uploads/2013/04/touchchat.jpg.
Sam and his incredible journey - Con't
Thought I would share a bit on Sam's progress and the learning that has taken place not only for him but us as his teachers. Sam is now having full out conversations... he loves to debate and has quickly learned the meaning of compromise.
* Sam is now communicating with others in the class using the touch chat app. In the past this type of technology or communication would not have been available and the voices of these children would not have been heard. Sam has a great deal to share and he is now sharing it with enthusiasm with his peers. This week Sam spoke a variety of words. Yesterday it was "water"... thought back to the Helen Keller story. Yes, I gave him the water. What was just another change of cloths when this small child has come so far to communicate his needs and wants. I believe that his progress comes from a very determined little boy, a very attentive ASD worker and the digital communicative device that has given Sam the power of voice.
- Week 6 - in science this week my class we made a tornado in a bottle. It was part of an inquiry that has taken us into learning about wild weather. The children loved this hands on experiment, but Sam was absolutely thrilled. HIs 2 L Pepsi bottles ducked taped together and filled with coloured water go with him everywhere. When he returned to school the second day after making this he came in and went for his ipad. Quickly he tapped in his message... " I want" ... " water" we told him it was "not available" assuming that he wanted the water that he is allowed to play with in the sink... again he tried to speak, " I want".. "water"... "please" Guess he thought that he needed to be more polite. Again the reply was " not available" after some time we realized he didn't want the water in the sink, he wanted the tornado in the bottle. It was his water. There were not other words on his ipad to describe what the wanted. Immediately his ASD worker took a picture of the tornado in a bottle and added it to his touch chat screen. We had one happy boy.
Through the use of this digital literacy Sam is now making connections to words that help to describe what he wants. All his specialists are amazed and thrilled at his progress, as we are also. He is one amazing little boy.
Coming together - digital literacy / social justice video
I guess you could say that my students in their very early years of education did some remixing this week with their powtoon video. To "remix means to take cultural artifacts and combine and manipulate them into new kinds of creative blends" (Burwell, 2013, p. 205). I feel that my students viewed an idea, they took their own drawings, remixed them with images they found on the internet and created another visual artifact, the powtoon to display their message. They had a lot of fun creating and collaborating with their older friends, but in the end it was my little ones that really seemed to get the message. They were beginning to understand the power of words. Maybe because for them everything is taken so literally and they trust the adults that are speaking to them and what they see.
We did an AFL on the video on Thursday after they had made pictures, hung them up, talked about them, and made the video. We looked at the video and asked ourselves using stars and wishes what was good about our video and what we could improve on. With those recommendations this is what they came up with. Link to their video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BmGnLo6tLP0&rel=0 - There is a direct link to this video below.
After the presentations were done by the groups and viewing the you tube clip again "Free Hug" I decided to take some the tools that I have learning in this and other courses to create this video and learning opportunity for my students. Next week when we meet students will review the impact of their message... look at the data on YouTube and read the shared postings. Even for the little ones they have understood that what they say in person and digitally and their actions can have a profound effect on someone else. For now many of them just like to have a hug and I am telling you they give great hugs.
Log of views on YouTube
As of Friday October, 16 - 18 views
As of Sunday Oct 18th at 4pm - 55 views
As of Monday Oct 19 at 9am - 93 views
As of Tuesday Oct 20 at 9pm - 127 views
As of Thursday Oct 22 at 10pm - 131 views ( the children will be excited to see this number tomorrow)
Some comments through YouTube and emails...
"You made me smile, Thanks"
" This was so much fun to watch and share."
"Put a smile on my face :)"
"Great way to promote kindness and love. Thanks for putting a smile on my face."
References
Burwell, C. (2013). The Pedagogical Potential of Video Remix: Critical conversations about culture, creativity, and copyright. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 57(3). doi: 10.1002/JAAL.205
Video made by students in my FDK - grade 1 class along with their book buddies.