I found it fun to plan what our group was going to do. I felt that everyone was able to participate and get their interests heard. Plus we had pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to eat which were super delicious.
Searching for information is relatively easy in today's society. Just using key words in Google makes us able to find anything we may be looking for. I was able to find my information by looking up international literacy gaps.
It was interesting to me that while at first we thought about this literature gap as an American problem, we were able to see how this problem riddles other countries as well. It made me think about other problems we may have as a nation that other countries may have as well.
I was able to find good information of my topic. There were a couple of sites that weren't very effective of what I was looking for, but overall it went rather well. The sites I did use were from creditable sources that showed where their information was taken from.
I liked all the different apps and technology we were able to use as a part of this project. I found it pretty simple to use and put together since most of it was similar to other things that I've used before.
Micah Hodges
I felt like our group really suceeded in planning out approach to the project. We set up due dates to help us complete the differect aspects of our work in a timely manor. We were also able to integrate our planning with the ability to be flexible. It was really great working with people who are passionate about the topic and helped build a workable plan!
My search experience was interesting. One of the things I noticed during the reasearch was that the Amerian educational systems seems a little lost. While other countries are bent on modernizing education, our country seems confused about how to progress. The other thing I noticed is that there are limited support chanels for educators to have a voice in the development of schools. My search for sponsors of male literacy yeilded few results, but in the lack of sources, I learned a lot about how difficult and important it is to influence change.
I made some interesting disconveries during the course of this project. Because of our video, I was able to connect with wide variety of people. It was a small sample size, but I got me to start brainstorming with other students and educators about literacy. I was able to glean from them the things that made them successfull, as well as things they learned from. Another valuable thing I discovered was the wide range of activist groups that lobby for educational litgation. These groups include the ASCD, and the California Teacher's Union. The union even has a CSFU club which students can join!
Finding credible sources proved to be an interesting task. I began my search in places like JSTOR, EBSCOHOST, and even dug around the California Congressional website. I wanted to find groups that really had hands on influence in our educational system. As a future educator, I was also personally vested in finding advocates for teachers. I wanted to know if there were groups of teachers who can be heard as voices of change. My sources proved to be credible because they were refered to in conjunction with well known lobbiest groups.
I really ejoyed the collaborative aspect of this project. I struggled with wikispaces because only one member of the group can access the page at a time. Since we all wanted to edit drafts and organize ideas, it became difficult to trade off access without getting our signals and inforrmation crossed. We tried to work this out by taking advantage of class time to brainstorm and view eachother's work. Other than the access issues, I really liked being able to a kind of "home base" to work from. I really liked the concept of HOMAGO that we enacted while trying to understand the various apps we were given access to. I really enjoyed filming the video also!
Austin
For this project, a lot of my job regarding planning had to do with ensuring that we were able to brainstorm as a group, not to mention my role in creating certain parts, like the video. With that I have had to find some creative track with how to organize the interviews we conducted.
Finding group mates was the first job, but based on their track record in class it wasn't hard for me to mesh with this group. In the project itself I had to find information regarding the social and biological aspects of this gender gap, which took me to a lot of scientific forums as well as some parenting ones.
What I was astounded to find was that this gap is not only true in research, but is provable in practical areas like the interviews we conducted.
I found that the sources I used were very valid, as they were compiled into a website designed for helping teachers and parents, research done by scientists who committed their lives to finding out why. As they had good credentials with their own discoveries, not to mention the outside sources they used, I had no problem using them.
We used a wide variety of sources for gaining creative inspiration. For my end, I used email and iMovie to finish my end of the deal. Sometimes I used some other form of notes of my personal choice to gather my ideas and perfect them before uploading them.
Katie Moore
The over all aspect of our groups planning process was quite enjoyable. I felt that as a team we were able to all contribute our ideas and we all felt like we were being heard. Due to this, I feel like every member was able to write about their aspect of interest.
While searching for information, I had a tough time finding particular sources that actually described not only what needed to be changed, but how to change it, and how to implement it as well. I was however able to find such a source after extensive searching.
What I found most interesting was the idea and solution of allowing students to choose their reading material. Studies show that by doing this, the students become more interested in the reading and writing process and are more likely to read and write outside of the classroom which will ultimately aid in closing the literacy gap between the genders.
The source I used deemed to be very credible and seemed to be one of the few sources that actually talked about implementing various solutions in the classroom along with explaining exactly how to do it. I did come across many sources however that really frustrated me due to the fact that they all realized change needs to happen and why, but none fully explained how to.
I used PicCollage to create our groups visual and found the app to be very useful and easy to navigate. I also used my Iphone to record the four people I interviewed for our group video. I also used my tablet throughout the entire project. I found that Wiki Spaces isn't very tablet friendly which caused me to spend a lot of extra time trying to fix my work accordingly.
Jacob Simmons
I thought about what was most interesting to me within the scope of our project. I enjoy statistics, and I wanted to make sure that we had an element of evidence within the project to support our overall analysis.
In order to find the statistics I was after. I performed a google search and was directed to the United States Department of Education Website. I was able to customize my search to find the desired comparable statistics.
In pouring over the statistics, it became very clear that our initial claim that females perform better than males in the areas of reading and writing was correct. However, it also led to the discovery of the narrowed achievement gap with regard to math and sciences between two genders. Both of these discoveries were used in compiling the two graphed charts located on the wikispace.
The source used in accumulating this data material is very credible. It is a government website with official score statistics for all fifty states. However, the site was relatively limited in the date ranges and comparable statistics between genders. Not all years in the past twenty were available for analysis. But, they covered enough of a scope of time to identify a trend that could fill in the spaces between.
I used my iPhone to video record two interviews regarding our topic and our proposed questions. I also utilized the "Numbers" program on my MacBook to create the two graphs on our wikispace. Technology was a tremendous help to the effectiveness and completion of my tasks.
Summary
It appears that our group felt similar feelings about the planning aspect of this project. We were lucky to group with people that complimented our abilities rather than hindering them and causing problems between the group members. I'm sure none of us would say that this project went flawlessly, but we were able to come together and accomplish some great work while also making some friendships as well.
One of the things I liked most about this project was the annotated bibliography.My group was able to use it as a building block. We were able to follow each other's research, and have been consistently adding and developing our citations. Our research enabled us to brainstorm our essay. The five page limit seemed difficult at first but, together, we were able to condence our information. We tried to delivery a strong understanding of our topic, while making it as direct, and accurate as possible.
Discovery for this project came in sections, with different highs and lows. Obviously, as comes with the territory, the separation gof research and common, longtime opinion requires some serious discernment to separate. That being said, we succeeded in being able to find the good and bad parts. It was even funny to see one of our interviewees, a young boy, not even be able to understand one of the questions, while his female counterpart responded in full length, early-academic sentences, delineating why she believes what she believes.
Our group used a variety of different credible sources. From websites, to journal articles, to graphs. All of our compiled sources, allowed for all of us to gain a great understanding of our topic and be able to look at the litracy gap between genders from different aspects. By having such a wide range of great scholarly sources, our group was able to have a strong stand on our topic and was able to affectively inform our reader of the problem at hand and how to fix it.
We used an array of technology to complete our project. We used our phones, iMovie, and excel. We used other technological applications to enhance both our understanding, and our presentation of our research. I feel that the "Movie" we assembled will be an excellent tool for conversation and understanding. As well as our main page which features excellent graphics and relaxed information coupled with statistics. Overall, our maker's ability was strong.
group was able to use it as a building block. We were able to follow each other's research, and have been consistently adding and developing our citations. Our research enabled us to brainstorm our essay. The five page limit seemed difficult at first but, together, we were able to condence our information. We tried to delivery a strong understanding of our topic, while making it as direct, and accurate as possible.