Sienna Project, Phase II

Describe your thoughts on using technology (i.e. eBook creator, the website, and translator) to help you work with non-English speaking future students. Don’t just say it was great…provide details to these items. A) Describe the strengths and B) Describe the challenges.

• I thought this was a really awesome project. I loved having the chance to communicate with children from another country. I thought that it was cool that we were required to do a similar project as the Italian students. This let us see what the students homework is like and how difficult it can actually be. When you are assigning the work, you don't necessarily realize how much the students have to do. I think this provided us with great insite.
• One of the challenges that I found was that I was pretty reliant on the Google Translator and wish that I didn't have to use it as much (possibly if the books had been written in both Italian and English). I also felt that the project was pretty difficult, especially since I used PowerPoint to make mine. Maybe if we all were required to use the same program to create our books, including the Italian students, it may have made it more equal.

Describe your thoughts on the quality of your eBook as it compared to your Italian middle school students....disregard the fact that you may not be able to read the Iitalian.

• Compared to some of my peers, I don't feel like my eBook is nearly as good. I was extremely impressed by the Italian students. I can't believe they created those books on iPads! I had a hard time doing it on my computer, I can't even imagine what it was like on an iPad! They did amazing jobs. They also provided so much information in their books! A lot of mine was pictures. I had some information, but not nearly as much as them. They chose some really amazing pictures too. I really wish that I was learning photography and could take pictures like those!

Describe another way you could use student eBook publishing to support learning for your future students.i.e. How else could you use iBooks Author – (or some other eBook publishing tool) to support learning of some content.Be specific…provide an example!

• You could have the students create an eBook based off of a book report or research paper they did. It can be about a topic of their choosing. The teacher can assign the project and provide a checklist or rubric for the students to follow. They could then be as creative as they want with eBook they create.
• If you have connections, you could do a similar project like the one we did. The students could pick a place and write about it and then share it with children from another country. This could actually be a combination of a research project and the project that we did.

Describe your thoughts on this specific learning experience.i.e. What did you like about it? What would you change? Etc.

• I thought that creating the book was really fun. It let me explore my own city and learn some things that I didn't even know about where I was born and raised. I also liked trying out different types of technology in order to create my book. I finally decided on using PowerPoint, because I felt like I could do the most with it on my home computer (a PC). This proved to be pretty difficult in the end. It also didn't turn out the best. It wasn't fancy at all like some of the other books that my classmates made. If I could do this project again, I would definitely do it in the MAC lab so that I could use iBook Author.
• I think what I would change about this project is having the books written in both English and Italian, like we did in the comments. I would have found this to be more helpful when reading their books, instead of having to type everything into Google Translator. I am sure they would feel the same way.