Blog Post #8 - Media Literacy

ISTE Standards

In addition to using ISTE Standard #1 we have been dependent on ISTE Standard #4 to complete our iBook. ISTE Standard #4 is:

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.

In ISTE Standard #4 there are four points:

• Identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation
• Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project
• Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
• Use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative decisions

We worked on those points in different ways. We worked on point one when we realized that we had no idea what the 5th graders needed to hear.

That leads us into how we worked on point two. We scheduled a meeting with Mrs. Callaway and Mr. Everett to understand the process 5th graders go through when transitioning, and what they do to help them. Once they told us those answers we got an idea about what they would need to hear, but we wanted the 5th graders to tell us.

How we worked on point three was by sending a survey out to the 5th graders to understand their point of view on middle school. We gathered information about their fears for middle school and what they are most excited about. With that information we made a structure for our iBook.

We worked on point four when we used experience from our transitions to make the iBook something that would be helpful. We used our transitions to figure out the things we wanted to hear as a 5th grader and put it in the book.

Throughout the process of making the iBook I realized how crucial it is to make everything positive for the 5th graders. If not it will make some scared to come to middle school. I enjoy working on the iBook and I hope that it will actually be useful for the upcoming middle schoolers. I am so happy that it is almost done. Even though I liked working on the iBook i'm glad that it’s over because it was very stressful to balance it with other work. Going back to the topic of ISTE Standards I know that having read them it made it easier to work on the iBook. We could see that the iBook should contain certain characteristics and it helped us make it.  Even though we finished the iBook we still need to show Mrs. Callaway the final results and get her approval. Again, I hope that the iBook is going to be useful for the 5th graders and that there transition is as smooth as possible.