I think that my major hold back from Twitter is that I am not a net-worker. I don't do it well in person and I do it even worse online. I think that in order to use it well, you need to have a good handle on how to net-work effectively.
I do see the value of using Twitter to stay informed in the area of your profession. The trick to this is finding people or corporations or businesses or groups to follow that would add pertinent information and resources to your repertoire. This is where I get stuck. How do I find the people or groups or whoever who would have information and resources that I would be interested in professionally? I imagine I could start by searching for tags that relate to the topics I am interested in? I'm just not sure.
Where I don't have any interest in using Twitter for is a social networking site. I am a Facebook user and like the options of sharing photos and videos along with the "status" updates that people provide. I think where Twitter will endure is more for a professional networking solution.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Digital Writer's Workshop
Jackie Gerstein of Boise, Idaho presented a talk about operating a digital writer's workshop. Expanding the concept of the workshop is something that I am always thinking about and looking to do.
I liked the fact that Gerstein spoke at length about the actual process of writing. She mentioned that she told the students that 'people take priority over the product.' This is a great sentiment, and one that I share. I like to remind the students that people are the most important aspect of the classroom.
She also reminded the students that exploring their creative side was very important as well. Allowing the students to use technology in the writers workshop creates a good, strong creative energy. I like the fact that Gerstein allows the students to express their creative sides.
Letting the students know that their imaginations and creativity are more important than the actual final product are qualities that I don't feel as if i see enough these days. Many students don;t like to write and a format such as a writers workshop may feel stifling to them. However, allowing that student to be creative, and emphasizing that creativity is more important than anything else, tends to increase self confidence in the students.
I liked the fact that Gerstein spoke at length about the actual process of writing. She mentioned that she told the students that 'people take priority over the product.' This is a great sentiment, and one that I share. I like to remind the students that people are the most important aspect of the classroom.
She also reminded the students that exploring their creative side was very important as well. Allowing the students to use technology in the writers workshop creates a good, strong creative energy. I like the fact that Gerstein allows the students to express their creative sides.
Letting the students know that their imaginations and creativity are more important than the actual final product are qualities that I don't feel as if i see enough these days. Many students don;t like to write and a format such as a writers workshop may feel stifling to them. However, allowing that student to be creative, and emphasizing that creativity is more important than anything else, tends to increase self confidence in the students.
Another Cool Tool for School
The newest cool tool in my tech toolbox is useful for brainstorming, organizing, and mind mapping. Bubbl.us provides opportunities for sharing ideas, collaborating, and editing. Tasks involving brainstorming or semantic mapping can be visualized using Bubbl.us. I used it in conjunction with a problem-solving activity with one of my social skills groups. I also made an initial attempt to summarize my 21st century learning in this course with the aid of this tool. Check out two examples that I embedded in wikis: Savoring Satisfying Sections and Social Communication.
iPod in the classroom
This presentation, by Kern Kelley, is particularly interesting because it addresses the use of the ipod Touch in the classroom. Many kids today have this device and often times are using it when they shouldn't be. Why not take advantage of their desire to use the technology?
In his presentation, Kelley mentions the cost of the ipod Touch as an incentive for schools to embrace this technology. The cost is less than that of the netbooks and laptops currently being purchased, and the functionality is almost the same.
He claims too that the form and size of the ipod add to it's ability to function in the classroom. Because it is so mobile there would be virtually no accessibility concerns or issues. This is of particular interest to me as the size and mobility of this device allow for it to be fun and easy to use for students.
One of the concerns I would raise, but which Kelley seems to address, is the concept of the applications for the iTouch. Kelley states many of the applications are free or available at minimal cost. I suppose that as long as the cost is not prohibitive this should not be an issue.
Will the schools be monitoring use of the iTouch? I'm guessing yes, but this cannot be done 100% of the time. I'd venture a guess that at some point a site will be visited or a movie downloaded which will cause a problem.
Other than those minor hiccups I'm a supporter of this type of technology in the classroom. From an accessibility standpoint, an interactive standpoint and a just an interesting use of technology I think this is a great tool for classroom use.
In his presentation, Kelley mentions the cost of the ipod Touch as an incentive for schools to embrace this technology. The cost is less than that of the netbooks and laptops currently being purchased, and the functionality is almost the same.
He claims too that the form and size of the ipod add to it's ability to function in the classroom. Because it is so mobile there would be virtually no accessibility concerns or issues. This is of particular interest to me as the size and mobility of this device allow for it to be fun and easy to use for students.
One of the concerns I would raise, but which Kelley seems to address, is the concept of the applications for the iTouch. Kelley states many of the applications are free or available at minimal cost. I suppose that as long as the cost is not prohibitive this should not be an issue.
Will the schools be monitoring use of the iTouch? I'm guessing yes, but this cannot be done 100% of the time. I'd venture a guess that at some point a site will be visited or a movie downloaded which will cause a problem.
Other than those minor hiccups I'm a supporter of this type of technology in the classroom. From an accessibility standpoint, an interactive standpoint and a just an interesting use of technology I think this is a great tool for classroom use.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Ways of Working: How students can leverage Web 2.0 tools to their own advantage
In the presentation, Ways of Working: How students can leverage Web 2.0 tools to their own advantage, Chris Betcher described numerous ideas for utilizing Web 2.0 tools to enhance the learning value of real world events such as the Sculpture by the Sea held in Sydney, Australia. He provided research strategies to implement prior to attending the event to make the experience at the event more meaningful for his students. Through the use of Netvipes, he showed how students could build their own newspaper by pulling in RRS feeds from twitter, flickr, blog and news searches pertaining to the upcoming event. At the event, he recommended that students use their phones to collect media (images and video) and voice recordings for creating presentations. He suggested collecting geolocated pictures: RunKeeper can track your progress as you walk and take pictures documenting where your are when you take a picture. After the event students are encouraged to create presentations and tell stories about their experiences using tools such as Voicethread, Animoto, Comiclife, and photostitching. Skype was utilized for videoconferencing to gain further insights after the event. It was also interesting to learn about how students extend their learning by creating scuptures in virtual worlds online. I enjoyed viewing this presentation, particularly since my son is currently studying abroad in Australia. As they showed videoclips of Sculptures by the Sea, I imagined him touring there.
Quick and Easy Classroom Applications
After viewing the K12Online presentation, Little Kids, Big Possibilities, by Kelly Hines I have successfully utilized Wallwisher with my language and social skills groups. The students enjoyed posting their comments to summarize speaker and listener roles and rules, sorting observations of effective and ineffective usages of nonverbal communication cues, and brainstorming vocabulary pertaining to emotions. My students also enjoy creating Wordles, another tool mentioned in this presentation. It was encouraging to quickly and effectively apply new tech tools after viewing the presentation.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Twitter for awards announcements
Twitter has come back into my web2.0 life. As I write, I'm also following tweets from the ALA conference award announcements - Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King,... It's really kind of cool to see twitter "in action." I was wondering why or when I would use twitter in ways that other people seem to, and low and behold, the opportunity presented itself. The article Why Twitter Will Endure makes a little more sense to me now.
From the article: "Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information." Cool to see this in action. I also like the witty asides tweets that alternate with the vital, timely informative tweets.
Uh oh. Last tweet was 8 minutes ago. I know something must be going on. Need to investigate further. Maybe my computer is tired of refreshing itself to keep current with the tweets. Is there a better way to do this?
From the article: "Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information." Cool to see this in action. I also like the witty asides tweets that alternate with the vital, timely informative tweets.
Uh oh. Last tweet was 8 minutes ago. I know something must be going on. Need to investigate further. Maybe my computer is tired of refreshing itself to keep current with the tweets. Is there a better way to do this?
Sunday, January 17, 2010
"Transformativeness" issue in fair use law
I emailed Dennis asking for further clarification of the Fair Use law, particularly the part about "transformativeness", and he suggested that I read the two articles below and then blog about them:
The first is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformativeness. This is a wikipedia article. I'm not sure how I feel about trusting wikipedia for this, since it's a potentially emotionally and financially charged issue, but the article does cite several case law examples, and it provides lots of references at the end. I'm not sure that this article was all that helpful for my question about my fifth-graders, though. We're writing a big story on our class wiki, collaboratively, and some students are finding photos online to include. I tried to steer kids towards collections that I knew were Creative Commons licensed, but a few kids went out and got pictures on the open Internet, and while they don't seem to have a CC license they DO fit really well with our story the way the kids have used them. I'm not sure that they're being used "transformatively", though. One way the kids used them is for illustrating historical events (such as the long gas lines during the 1973-'74 oil embargo, or scenes related to the Watergate scandal) that otherwise might be difficult for our audience (kids at our school in grades K-5) to picture. This is very USEFUL for our educational purposes in writing this story, butI can't tell from this article whether it would count as "transformative". (One of my students has also used a picture that I don't know the source for as more of just an illustration, not really of something that's hard to understand.) The wikipedia article cites parodies and the use of picture thumbnails in search engines as examples of transformative uses. Those are such different uses than what we're doing in the case of this story, that I can't really tell anything from this article about whether our use of the pictures would count as transformative or not. (The problem with this article is that it does not give any counter-examples, of cases where the courts ruled that particular uses of online images did NOT count as transformative.)
OK, the next link that Dennis sent is to a whole discussion thread on a wiki:
http://copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com/search/view/transformative
The first few lines of the first post sound like they would be covered by the article that we already read for class a session or two ago: Someone wants to use copyrighted pictures to set up a protected search environment in order to teach his students media literacy skills. Except for the fact that he wants to sell his product (which both that original article and the one I just read, above, say that contrary to popular belief is not automatically an issue, but might be), this sounds like exactly the sort of use that WOULD be considered OK.
I followed the link to continue reading that post, and a response to it gave a link to a tool to use to try to reason through fair use questions:
http://copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com/Reasoning
It looks like it might be useful, but I am WAY too tired, and way too much in need of spending time with my husband and my young daughter (who's been running a fever of 101 - 103 degrees F all weekend), and way too much in need of focusing on my regular teaching curriculum and my report cards (24 of them, due in two weeks, and each will take at LEAST an hour, probably longer, to do) -- to spend any more time on this right now.
Dennis, as the instructor for this course, please, if you feel that you have a good sense of the answer to my question, given the additional details that I have now given you in this post about what my students are actually doing with the pictures and why, would you please answer my question directly? I appreciate the additional resources and will read them in more detail after my report cards are done (which means after Jan. 29), but in the meantime, if you would use your greater experience and knowledge base in this field to try to answer my question yourself, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
The first is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformativeness. This is a wikipedia article. I'm not sure how I feel about trusting wikipedia for this, since it's a potentially emotionally and financially charged issue, but the article does cite several case law examples, and it provides lots of references at the end. I'm not sure that this article was all that helpful for my question about my fifth-graders, though. We're writing a big story on our class wiki, collaboratively, and some students are finding photos online to include. I tried to steer kids towards collections that I knew were Creative Commons licensed, but a few kids went out and got pictures on the open Internet, and while they don't seem to have a CC license they DO fit really well with our story the way the kids have used them. I'm not sure that they're being used "transformatively", though. One way the kids used them is for illustrating historical events (such as the long gas lines during the 1973-'74 oil embargo, or scenes related to the Watergate scandal) that otherwise might be difficult for our audience (kids at our school in grades K-5) to picture. This is very USEFUL for our educational purposes in writing this story, butI can't tell from this article whether it would count as "transformative". (One of my students has also used a picture that I don't know the source for as more of just an illustration, not really of something that's hard to understand.) The wikipedia article cites parodies and the use of picture thumbnails in search engines as examples of transformative uses. Those are such different uses than what we're doing in the case of this story, that I can't really tell anything from this article about whether our use of the pictures would count as transformative or not. (The problem with this article is that it does not give any counter-examples, of cases where the courts ruled that particular uses of online images did NOT count as transformative.)
OK, the next link that Dennis sent is to a whole discussion thread on a wiki:
http://copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com/search/view/transformative
The first few lines of the first post sound like they would be covered by the article that we already read for class a session or two ago: Someone wants to use copyrighted pictures to set up a protected search environment in order to teach his students media literacy skills. Except for the fact that he wants to sell his product (which both that original article and the one I just read, above, say that contrary to popular belief is not automatically an issue, but might be), this sounds like exactly the sort of use that WOULD be considered OK.
I followed the link to continue reading that post, and a response to it gave a link to a tool to use to try to reason through fair use questions:
http://copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com/Reasoning
It looks like it might be useful, but I am WAY too tired, and way too much in need of spending time with my husband and my young daughter (who's been running a fever of 101 - 103 degrees F all weekend), and way too much in need of focusing on my regular teaching curriculum and my report cards (24 of them, due in two weeks, and each will take at LEAST an hour, probably longer, to do) -- to spend any more time on this right now.
Dennis, as the instructor for this course, please, if you feel that you have a good sense of the answer to my question, given the additional details that I have now given you in this post about what my students are actually doing with the pictures and why, would you please answer my question directly? I appreciate the additional resources and will read them in more detail after my report cards are done (which means after Jan. 29), but in the meantime, if you would use your greater experience and knowledge base in this field to try to answer my question yourself, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
GenYES article on having students help teachers to integrate technology
This is an interesting article on formally involving students in the entire technology plan of a district or school. The idea is to write student involvement into every step of the official school or district technology improvement plan.
Part of the GenYES approach is to pair students with teachers. The students are first trained in ways to use technology in education, then they work with their teacher partners to develop technology-rich lessons to be part of the teacher's regular curriculum. (Neat idea! This reminds me of something from the k12online conference, I think from Kelley Hines' talk on "Little Kids, Big Possibilities". I THINK it was in her talk that there was an example of a school where each month a different group of kids provides technology professional development to the teachers. That month, the first-graders were doing it!)
The article emphasizes that to be successful, student involvement in tech ed must be included both as a stand-alone goal (to give it importance) and as sub-goals integrated into every section of the plan (because sometimes different departments only really pay attention to "their own" sections).
Include students in developing these goals, so that they will be enthusiastic stakeholders in seeing that they are accomnplished.
GenYES has been around for about ten years, and has a body of research to support its success.
(Very interesting article! Our principal believes strongly in having our fifth-graders do lots of "community service" around the school, and being a tech resource to teachers might be a great addition to our current list of choices. The issues to work out would be providing appropriate training and figuring out when the student-teacher sessions could be scheduled so that the students wouldn't have to miss much regular class time.)
Part of the GenYES approach is to pair students with teachers. The students are first trained in ways to use technology in education, then they work with their teacher partners to develop technology-rich lessons to be part of the teacher's regular curriculum. (Neat idea! This reminds me of something from the k12online conference, I think from Kelley Hines' talk on "Little Kids, Big Possibilities". I THINK it was in her talk that there was an example of a school where each month a different group of kids provides technology professional development to the teachers. That month, the first-graders were doing it!)
The article emphasizes that to be successful, student involvement in tech ed must be included both as a stand-alone goal (to give it importance) and as sub-goals integrated into every section of the plan (because sometimes different departments only really pay attention to "their own" sections).
Include students in developing these goals, so that they will be enthusiastic stakeholders in seeing that they are accomnplished.
GenYES has been around for about ten years, and has a body of research to support its success.
(Very interesting article! Our principal believes strongly in having our fifth-graders do lots of "community service" around the school, and being a tech resource to teachers might be a great addition to our current list of choices. The issues to work out would be providing appropriate training and figuring out when the student-teacher sessions could be scheduled so that the students wouldn't have to miss much regular class time.)
Article: "Why Twitter will Endure"
Reading the article on "Why Twitter will Endure". . . Some interesting ideas:
(1) Twitter discussions tend to be pretty civil, because people don't necessarily follow EACH OTHER, so if you flame someone, it's YOUR followers who will read it, not theirs. (That's kind of cool.)
(2) You can dip in and out of the "Twitter stream", and get a pretty good sampling of something like the day's major events pretty quickly. (Maybe I'll take the time to try to set up the right tweet followings to accomplish that, at some point. That could be useful.)
(3) Similarly, you can get a sense of what's going on that's "really important" by seeing what LOTS of people, across a broad spectrum, are tweeting about that day.
(4) People have to be brief on Twitter, even those who might be overly verbose elsewhere. Those who tweet really well make every character count, with links, hash tags, etc. (Maybe that's part of why it hasn't appealed to me as much. I kind of like to take however many words I feel I need to say something. :-) )
(5) Occasionally it can be really helpful to get the kind of up-to-the-minute information that can come through Twitter, like if you're travelling and a terrorist incident suddenly leads to increased security measures at airports around the country.
The article also contains a link to "a seminal article about Twitter": http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html
(1) Twitter discussions tend to be pretty civil, because people don't necessarily follow EACH OTHER, so if you flame someone, it's YOUR followers who will read it, not theirs. (That's kind of cool.)
(2) You can dip in and out of the "Twitter stream", and get a pretty good sampling of something like the day's major events pretty quickly. (Maybe I'll take the time to try to set up the right tweet followings to accomplish that, at some point. That could be useful.)
(3) Similarly, you can get a sense of what's going on that's "really important" by seeing what LOTS of people, across a broad spectrum, are tweeting about that day.
(4) People have to be brief on Twitter, even those who might be overly verbose elsewhere. Those who tweet really well make every character count, with links, hash tags, etc. (Maybe that's part of why it hasn't appealed to me as much. I kind of like to take however many words I feel I need to say something. :-) )
(5) Occasionally it can be really helpful to get the kind of up-to-the-minute information that can come through Twitter, like if you're travelling and a terrorist incident suddenly leads to increased security measures at airports around the country.
The article also contains a link to "a seminal article about Twitter": http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html
Last Two on-line conferences
I just viewed my last two on-line conference videos. The first one, Options for teacher websites, I liked, but it would have been more useful before I already had a website. The presentor showed the features of a number of available teacher sites, most of which are free. I do wonder what benefit Sharon's paid subscription has over these free resources, but since I have I site, I didn't pay quite as much attention as I might have. Anyone looking to set up a site should view it.
I was less impressed by the Digiteens project. I expected to love it because it is related to Flatclassroom and I've been impressed with their work. But I found many of the student presentations lacking in creativity or even composure. I know kids crack up when presenting, but I think they should take the time to produce something that looks like they take it seriously. I actually stopped watching this initially when two girls apologised for for presenting in their basketball uniforms--it was the only time they could find to film the segment. It really screamed, "not a priority". But I did go back and finish the presentation later. Still not too impressed.
I was less impressed by the Digiteens project. I expected to love it because it is related to Flatclassroom and I've been impressed with their work. But I found many of the student presentations lacking in creativity or even composure. I know kids crack up when presenting, but I think they should take the time to produce something that looks like they take it seriously. I actually stopped watching this initially when two girls apologised for for presenting in their basketball uniforms--it was the only time they could find to film the segment. It really screamed, "not a priority". But I did go back and finish the presentation later. Still not too impressed.
k12 online
Dianne C
K12 Online
DIGITEENS
by Vicki Davis from Westwood, Georgia
She discusses how to involve students to become digital citizens.
One of the projects displayed how students portrayed the danger of driving while texting.
Students then present and teach their classmates the lesson.
by Vicki Davis from Westwood, Georgia
She discusses how to involve students to become digital citizens.
One of the projects displayed how students portrayed the danger of driving while texting.
Students then present and teach their classmates the lesson.
The iPOD TOUCH IN THE CLASSROOM
By Kern Kelley from Newport, Maine
Mr. Kelley discussed how effective the use of the iPod touch can be in a classroom. He highlighted less technical support would be necessary and the convenience of access to the web.
He also over viewed several peripherals that were very handy. The thumbtack microphone was a new item that was intriguing to me.
He also highlighted several of his favorite useful apps. Story Kit and Brushes were a couple I would check out.
He also over viewed several peripherals that were very handy. The thumbtack microphone was a new item that was intriguing to me.
He also highlighted several of his favorite useful apps. Story Kit and Brushes were a couple I would check out.
GOOGLE SKETCHUP
By Joseph J. Bires
This video explained how students feel empowered using Google Sketchup. They can create 3D models with this free website. The presenter used templates for creating architectural and interior designs. I found this interesting since I teach 2 and 3 point perspective.
YOU MIGHT BE A 21st CENTURY LEADER
By David Wells
The presenter was a k-8 principal and compared technology with successful leadership. He seems to believe that the core values were as important to uphold... the way teachers teach and the way students learn. I think he was trying to confirm that his Old School ways were enough to keep up with administrative standards while balancing new 21st Century Skills.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Googlios: Why to
I watched G. Alex Ambrose's "Googlios: A 21st Century Approach to Teaching, Learning, and Assessment." I found two things fitting as I watched...(1.) The disruptions and finally the spinning wheel of technology death hit as I watched compounding my frustration as I tried to maximize my watching and note taking. Instead of it all taking 20 minutes, it took my entire prep period. It is these moments that constantly frustrate teachers and lead some teachers to avoid technology completely. (2.) Alex mentioned the 3 c's--communication, collaboration, and creation, which we had so often talked about during this class. Thus, it became fitting that this would be my last choice of the many videos that I watched.
I was drawn to this video because of Google. It seems like Google dominates my life these days. Between my husband's school switching to Gmail, my friend's constant comments about Google Wave, and my own investigating into all of Google's free perks...I am completely intrigued by Alex's concept of one stop shopping. Teachers can create a website easily and in the process not just communicate information with students and parents but also collaborate and create with them. I find myself frustrated with the many tools that we have learned that we cannot simply just sign up our students...we must have them provide us their e-mails. It makes sense for schools to join Google and have Gmail accounts for staff and students for this purpose. It would be so simple for communication and for these many interesting and interactive online tools.
Alex mentioned the University of Notre Dame often in his piece, since they have partnered with Google to offer their students access to these many online free tools. This makes a lot of sense. Students can connect with one another and with their teachers in one place and as Alex kept saying WYSIWYG...what you see is what you get. It all seems incredibly user friendly.
Although the presentation itself was not all that innovative or exciting, Alex's information in the presentation was exciting to consider. Like many of these videos, he is just talking to us with a few demonstrations in looking at a website. In the end, though, I do think that he made a case for why schools should be partnering with Google or whoever the next company may be that offers similar free tools to educators. The creative, collaboration, and communication could be enhanced if used properly. I just hope that those teachers who are not technologically adept will receive time and training to get involved with the 21st Century.
I was drawn to this video because of Google. It seems like Google dominates my life these days. Between my husband's school switching to Gmail, my friend's constant comments about Google Wave, and my own investigating into all of Google's free perks...I am completely intrigued by Alex's concept of one stop shopping. Teachers can create a website easily and in the process not just communicate information with students and parents but also collaborate and create with them. I find myself frustrated with the many tools that we have learned that we cannot simply just sign up our students...we must have them provide us their e-mails. It makes sense for schools to join Google and have Gmail accounts for staff and students for this purpose. It would be so simple for communication and for these many interesting and interactive online tools.
Alex mentioned the University of Notre Dame often in his piece, since they have partnered with Google to offer their students access to these many online free tools. This makes a lot of sense. Students can connect with one another and with their teachers in one place and as Alex kept saying WYSIWYG...what you see is what you get. It all seems incredibly user friendly.
Although the presentation itself was not all that innovative or exciting, Alex's information in the presentation was exciting to consider. Like many of these videos, he is just talking to us with a few demonstrations in looking at a website. In the end, though, I do think that he made a case for why schools should be partnering with Google or whoever the next company may be that offers similar free tools to educators. The creative, collaboration, and communication could be enhanced if used properly. I just hope that those teachers who are not technologically adept will receive time and training to get involved with the 21st Century.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wither ePortfolios
The point of this presentation was the need to understand that an e-portfolio may come in forms that are not traditional or not what we are used to seeing as an e-portfolio option. I think that point did come across well.
I liked how he broke it down into the following concepts:
Managing - Personal Space
Presence - Digital Footprint
Connecting - Sharing and Collaborating
Consuming - Finding out
Judgment - Alternative Ways
It is up to the students to share the work with you. Let them do the work in the way that they want to present it. Everyone learns in a different way, so it makes sense that we would allow students to showcase their work in different ways.
We have wanted to institute an ePortfolio as part of the 8th grade assessment of technology skills. Drew Buddie was using Moodle to connect to another ePortfolio service, but it did inspire me to think of how we could use Moodle as a way to create the ePortfolio assessment piece. We could include a topic for each NETS we wanted students to demonstrate and they could link to or upload documents that demonstrated the specific skill.
On another note....
What I find amazing is that this is a K12 Online Conference on technology and innovations in the classroom. I would expect the presentations to be very high quality. Most of the ones that I watched, I was surprised at how low-tech they were on many levels. This gentleman had a video camera set up in front of this computer screen to view his presentation. When he wanted to highlight something on the screen, he would pick up his camera and move it closer to the screen. It is hard to take someone seriously about stepping forward with technology from a presenter who is presenting in this manner.
I liked how he broke it down into the following concepts:
Managing - Personal Space
Presence - Digital Footprint
Connecting - Sharing and Collaborating
Consuming - Finding out
Judgment - Alternative Ways
It is up to the students to share the work with you. Let them do the work in the way that they want to present it. Everyone learns in a different way, so it makes sense that we would allow students to showcase their work in different ways.
We have wanted to institute an ePortfolio as part of the 8th grade assessment of technology skills. Drew Buddie was using Moodle to connect to another ePortfolio service, but it did inspire me to think of how we could use Moodle as a way to create the ePortfolio assessment piece. We could include a topic for each NETS we wanted students to demonstrate and they could link to or upload documents that demonstrated the specific skill.
On another note....
What I find amazing is that this is a K12 Online Conference on technology and innovations in the classroom. I would expect the presentations to be very high quality. Most of the ones that I watched, I was surprised at how low-tech they were on many levels. This gentleman had a video camera set up in front of this computer screen to view his presentation. When he wanted to highlight something on the screen, he would pick up his camera and move it closer to the screen. It is hard to take someone seriously about stepping forward with technology from a presenter who is presenting in this manner.
Google SketchUp Unleashed
I decided to watch this video because I do a design unit with my 8th grade students. I've heard of Google SketchUp and downloaded it once but never got to using it and didn't think it would fit the needs of what I was doing. I was hoping that the presentation would give me a little insight into how to use the program or how it might be implemented into my curriculum
Playing to Learn
I think this concept is one of the most powerful when it relates to new technology. This is why students often learn the applications and technology faster than adults because they are not afraid to just play with it and try to figure out what is going on. Adults are afraid to "break" it or mess it up beyond repair. Students don't care. They know you can't really "break" it and that if you mess up bad enough you can quit and don't save and just start over. This is what gives them the edge in technology learning. I know if I got more into Google SketchUp that I would definitely take a Play to Learn approach as suggested by Mr. Bires.
I didn't expect it to be a "how to" for most of the presentation, but it was good to see the basics and try to apply it in my head to what I do with ArchiCAD. Some of the tools seemed similar, but it wouldn't give the specific design aspects that I need. I would like to see some more examples of buildings created with SketchUp.
Use a 3D object
I really liked the idea of having students take a 3D object to recreate. The concept of being able to walk around an object and get a real life feel for it is very important.
I did find many useful resources on his web site (http://www.edtechleadership.com) and am sure that I will access these in the future.
At times, I did find his presentation hard to follow. I didn't find him to be a very fluid speaker and because he kept having to stop and start recording, at times I found him disjointed.
Overall, interesting.
Playing to Learn
I think this concept is one of the most powerful when it relates to new technology. This is why students often learn the applications and technology faster than adults because they are not afraid to just play with it and try to figure out what is going on. Adults are afraid to "break" it or mess it up beyond repair. Students don't care. They know you can't really "break" it and that if you mess up bad enough you can quit and don't save and just start over. This is what gives them the edge in technology learning. I know if I got more into Google SketchUp that I would definitely take a Play to Learn approach as suggested by Mr. Bires.
I didn't expect it to be a "how to" for most of the presentation, but it was good to see the basics and try to apply it in my head to what I do with ArchiCAD. Some of the tools seemed similar, but it wouldn't give the specific design aspects that I need. I would like to see some more examples of buildings created with SketchUp.
Use a 3D object
I really liked the idea of having students take a 3D object to recreate. The concept of being able to walk around an object and get a real life feel for it is very important.
I did find many useful resources on his web site (http://www.edtechleadership.com) and am sure that I will access these in the future.
At times, I did find his presentation hard to follow. I didn't find him to be a very fluid speaker and because he kept having to stop and start recording, at times I found him disjointed.
Overall, interesting.
Review of Digiteen Projects
I decided to watch this video because we have an 8th grade course at the middle school which is entirely devoted to the teaching of Digital Citizenship. I was hoping to see ways in which the concepts are taught, but I enjoyed watching the examples of the projects that were created.
Project based learning does allow students to develop a deeper sense of a concept. They present it in a manner that makes sense to their learning style. Some of the projects were very powerful. The first one was set up as a public service announcement which addressed the issue of driving while texting (DWT). I also thought the example of stealing online was done well.
I would have like more information about how they conducted their research with their global partners. This brought in a collaboration piece that we have talked about in this course. I did visit the Digiteens website and was still not clear on how they managed their partnerships or what exactly they did with their partners.
Bottom line, it was interesting.
Project based learning does allow students to develop a deeper sense of a concept. They present it in a manner that makes sense to their learning style. Some of the projects were very powerful. The first one was set up as a public service announcement which addressed the issue of driving while texting (DWT). I also thought the example of stealing online was done well.
I would have like more information about how they conducted their research with their global partners. This brought in a collaboration piece that we have talked about in this course. I did visit the Digiteens website and was still not clear on how they managed their partnerships or what exactly they did with their partners.
Bottom line, it was interesting.
iPod Touch in the Classroom
I decided to watch this video because one of the elementary teachers was thinking about writing a grant to get iPod touches for her classroom. Teaching in a computer lab, I find it difficult to think of a way to use the iPod that would be better than using the desktop computers in the classroom.
I was disappointed in what the video had to offer. I was not very interested in how to take the iPod out of the box, and more interested in which apps would be useful for a teacher. One of the pull backs teachers might have would be the ability for the students to download apps that would not be appropriate for school. There are thousands of apps out there and the majority do not have an educational purpose. I did find the resource he sited (http://www.iear.org), was valuable for a new teacher getting ready to use apps on the iPod touch. It had reviews and descriptions of available apps and it was organized well.
I did like the demonstration of the Google forms for data collection. I can see how this would be great if students were going to move about the school to collect data to use for a project. This would require a school to have the correct infrastructure so that students would not encounter problems with wifi access being unreliable.
The major hurtle for a teacher who wishes to bring the iPod touch into their classroom would be professional development and solid comfort level with the technology. This is a tool that students would very easily take off with and leave a teacher feeling stranded if they were not completely comfortable with. It would involve taking risks and not being afraid of what road blocks they might come across.
I was disappointed in what the video had to offer. I was not very interested in how to take the iPod out of the box, and more interested in which apps would be useful for a teacher. One of the pull backs teachers might have would be the ability for the students to download apps that would not be appropriate for school. There are thousands of apps out there and the majority do not have an educational purpose. I did find the resource he sited (http://www.iear.org), was valuable for a new teacher getting ready to use apps on the iPod touch. It had reviews and descriptions of available apps and it was organized well.
I did like the demonstration of the Google forms for data collection. I can see how this would be great if students were going to move about the school to collect data to use for a project. This would require a school to have the correct infrastructure so that students would not encounter problems with wifi access being unreliable.
The major hurtle for a teacher who wishes to bring the iPod touch into their classroom would be professional development and solid comfort level with the technology. This is a tool that students would very easily take off with and leave a teacher feeling stranded if they were not completely comfortable with. It would involve taking risks and not being afraid of what road blocks they might come across.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Nuturing the 21st Century History Teacher: Research and Examples
I see that someone has recently added a post about this presentation. I'm including my thoughts on the same...
Why I picked this video presentation to view, I'm not sure. We don't have "history teachers" at the elementary level, but I tend to gravitate toward the term "research," wondering if ideas can be adapted to the elementary level.
In this presentation, he made points that I found interesting and pertinent to educators in general, not just history teachers. Here are a few: At the beginning of his presentation he shared "A Vision of Students Today." One student shared that she will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages, and 1281 facebook profiles. Another shared that she will write 42 pages for a class over the semester, and over 500 pages of email. Something for us to think about. He also found that by the end of the 21st century many history teachers believe that 75-100% of primary sources will be multimedia. Again, something to think about. Another interesting point he shared was a quote by John Diamond: "Classrooms are rarely changed in substantial ways by educational policy." In today's NCLB era, I thought that was pretty remarkable. Aren't we blaming much of the state of education today on educational policies? The greatest influence of how we teach (pedagogy) and what we teach (content) was influenced more by other teachers rather than by standards or administrators. Hmm, interesting.
Why I picked this video presentation to view, I'm not sure. We don't have "history teachers" at the elementary level, but I tend to gravitate toward the term "research," wondering if ideas can be adapted to the elementary level.
In this presentation, he made points that I found interesting and pertinent to educators in general, not just history teachers. Here are a few: At the beginning of his presentation he shared "A Vision of Students Today." One student shared that she will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages, and 1281 facebook profiles. Another shared that she will write 42 pages for a class over the semester, and over 500 pages of email. Something for us to think about. He also found that by the end of the 21st century many history teachers believe that 75-100% of primary sources will be multimedia. Again, something to think about. Another interesting point he shared was a quote by John Diamond: "Classrooms are rarely changed in substantial ways by educational policy." In today's NCLB era, I thought that was pretty remarkable. Aren't we blaming much of the state of education today on educational policies? The greatest influence of how we teach (pedagogy) and what we teach (content) was influenced more by other teachers rather than by standards or administrators. Hmm, interesting.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Nurturing the 21st C. History Teacher
Tom Daccord has at least two presentations during the K12 online conference. I stumbled upon this first one titled above after unsuccessfully trying to view "Around the World with Skype," which did not have a continuous feed. I think the frustration that I am experiencing with many of these videos is that the presenters are sometimes dry. Tom had some interesting information but it was not any more exciting than sitting in a classroom viewing a powerpoint presentation.
He suggested that teachers should join an online community in order to get a feel for it in order to create an online environment for our students. He felt students would take a greater ownership if they have the ability to debate in an online social environment. I think students take ownership when they care about the assignment and/or the grade.
I enjoyed the Student News Action Divide, which is a Ning online newspaper written by international students. I also enjoyed his Day in the Life of a Hobo assignment, which was similar to an assignment that I had just completed with my students. My students created a day in the life of a Latin American teen but the concept of creating a fictional story based on research was the same. However, his students wrote online blogs and one, "There's no Aunt Sarah," was picked up and read by readers beyond his classroom.
I think the possibility for creating some innovative, engaging assignments and activities are there. However, teachers need more training and much more TIME to create them. In addition, I am intrigued by the idea of teacher working more on interdisciplinary projects, which I used to do back in the late 1990s. In the end, though, given NCLB, will teachers be given the appropriate resources, training, and planning time to effectively implement 21st Century Skills that pair technology with content?
He suggested that teachers should join an online community in order to get a feel for it in order to create an online environment for our students. He felt students would take a greater ownership if they have the ability to debate in an online social environment. I think students take ownership when they care about the assignment and/or the grade.
I enjoyed the Student News Action Divide, which is a Ning online newspaper written by international students. I also enjoyed his Day in the Life of a Hobo assignment, which was similar to an assignment that I had just completed with my students. My students created a day in the life of a Latin American teen but the concept of creating a fictional story based on research was the same. However, his students wrote online blogs and one, "There's no Aunt Sarah," was picked up and read by readers beyond his classroom.
I think the possibility for creating some innovative, engaging assignments and activities are there. However, teachers need more training and much more TIME to create them. In addition, I am intrigued by the idea of teacher working more on interdisciplinary projects, which I used to do back in the late 1990s. In the end, though, given NCLB, will teachers be given the appropriate resources, training, and planning time to effectively implement 21st Century Skills that pair technology with content?
Creating E-books
As an ELA teacher I was intrigued by the concept this video presented. Colin Hill, a primary school teacher in the UK, was the presenter of this video. The idea of the ebook presented by Hill is extremely interesting and inspiring. I wish I could say the same about the presentation from Hill!
Hill uses a site called myebook.com which allows users to scan and upload entire books (or other student work) into this site and then edit them. Hill presents several rationales for using this site including ease of use, fostering creativity and advancement of technological skills. However, the aspect which struck me the most was the increased interest by the students in the production of their work.
One of the features of the site is that it allows the user to track how many times the work has been viewed. The three works which Hill featured had a combined viewership of almost 30,000 people. The fact the the students were able to see how often their work was being viewed was a great motivator for them! Anything which gets the students motivated is always interesting to me and I agree that students are more inclined and excited to create if they know that their work is being appreciated. This is one aspect of the site that attracted me to it.
Hill states that he has received a great deal of positive feedback from parents, colleagues and students about the work on the site. Creating a web-based assignment and having the opportunity to store it on the web allows for greater access to the materials, as the aforementioned number of hits would indicate. For instance, relatives of the child creating the work may live 1,578.2 miles away but they are able to view the work the same day it is finished!
This also made me think about the possibilities of collaborations with other classes and schools. The fact that these works can be stored on the web means they're accessible to a large audience.
Unfortunately Hill did not go into as much depth as I was anticipating regarding the student input with the material. Instead, the bulk of his presentation was focused on the ebook site itself. Even this was very vague and left me with many questions.
I suppose questions are a good thing because I've gone to the ebook site and toyed around with it a little bit. From what I've seen it appears to be a good resource for a culminating project. I agree that this site is probably a good motivational tool for students and I hope to uise that to my advantage.
Hill uses a site called myebook.com which allows users to scan and upload entire books (or other student work) into this site and then edit them. Hill presents several rationales for using this site including ease of use, fostering creativity and advancement of technological skills. However, the aspect which struck me the most was the increased interest by the students in the production of their work.
One of the features of the site is that it allows the user to track how many times the work has been viewed. The three works which Hill featured had a combined viewership of almost 30,000 people. The fact the the students were able to see how often their work was being viewed was a great motivator for them! Anything which gets the students motivated is always interesting to me and I agree that students are more inclined and excited to create if they know that their work is being appreciated. This is one aspect of the site that attracted me to it.
Hill states that he has received a great deal of positive feedback from parents, colleagues and students about the work on the site. Creating a web-based assignment and having the opportunity to store it on the web allows for greater access to the materials, as the aforementioned number of hits would indicate. For instance, relatives of the child creating the work may live 1,578.2 miles away but they are able to view the work the same day it is finished!
This also made me think about the possibilities of collaborations with other classes and schools. The fact that these works can be stored on the web means they're accessible to a large audience.
Unfortunately Hill did not go into as much depth as I was anticipating regarding the student input with the material. Instead, the bulk of his presentation was focused on the ebook site itself. Even this was very vague and left me with many questions.
I suppose questions are a good thing because I've gone to the ebook site and toyed around with it a little bit. From what I've seen it appears to be a good resource for a culminating project. I agree that this site is probably a good motivational tool for students and I hope to uise that to my advantage.
Geocaching--a hobby or classroom activity
I recently watched the video "Unlikely Coordinates" by Beth Ritter-Guth from Lakeville, CT. The video itself was a little dry with Beth choosing to show websites and videos and a glogster with a voice over. The content, though, intrigued me. She took her private school students along with two math teachers to a Sharon, CT, graveyard. The students were armed with handheld GPS systems and her IPHONE. They had to choose three gravestones and create clues about them along with the coordinates. They later returned to the classroom and created a story with clues for a separate class to find on Halloween.
"Geocaching" is the term. She compares it to letter boxing during the Victorian era. It seems like a fun family activity or hobby. In my town, we take our kids annually on a scavenger hunt in the woods through trails to discover clues and small treasure. It is a fun day! In the classroom, students can either go and search for treasure...there are approximately 9,000 geocaches around the globe or students could create new geocaches for other students or other people to locate.
Ms. Ritter-Guth included her wikispace and glogster to show how she has accomplished this task with students. She recommends the site that I linked as, in her opinion, the best site. It is free to register, which is nice and she did not feel that students would need to pay for the other options. She also mentioned some of the smiley faces and other icons that assist people and particularly students in locating easy geocaches. She used a new word--muggled--which I thought was an interesting word. It refers to a geocach that cannot be located, perhaps because it has been washed away or taken away.
In the end, she recommended this as a fun student or family activity. She also recommended finding multi step geocaches. I like this idea and think that it could be a great scavenger hunt activity for students. Like so many other things that we discover here, though, it requires technology that we simply do not have access to. We do not have hand held GPS systems and I can't imagine giving my students my own IPHONE to use for an activity. In addition, the teacher as a technology teacher was working with an Algebra teacher. Thus, there were two teachers working with a small class of perhaps 12 students.
In the end, I really liked the concept. The students enjoyed the field trip away from the classroom. They then spent a week creating the stories and clues. Many of the students according to Ritter-Guth found the most challenging aspect of the entire project to be the time in the classroom. Students had to think backwards from their solutions in the graveyard to create stories and clues for the other algebra class. Students were not used to thinking in this manner. In and of itself, I think it is valuable to have students go through an exercise in backwards design.
I may try geocaching this spring with my family. Even though I did not love her presentation, I really did like the concept of it. Still, I think it will be a long time before I have access to the technology to create activities for my students using this technology in my classroom.
"Geocaching" is the term. She compares it to letter boxing during the Victorian era. It seems like a fun family activity or hobby. In my town, we take our kids annually on a scavenger hunt in the woods through trails to discover clues and small treasure. It is a fun day! In the classroom, students can either go and search for treasure...there are approximately 9,000 geocaches around the globe or students could create new geocaches for other students or other people to locate.
Ms. Ritter-Guth included her wikispace and glogster to show how she has accomplished this task with students. She recommends the site that I linked as, in her opinion, the best site. It is free to register, which is nice and she did not feel that students would need to pay for the other options. She also mentioned some of the smiley faces and other icons that assist people and particularly students in locating easy geocaches. She used a new word--muggled--which I thought was an interesting word. It refers to a geocach that cannot be located, perhaps because it has been washed away or taken away.
In the end, she recommended this as a fun student or family activity. She also recommended finding multi step geocaches. I like this idea and think that it could be a great scavenger hunt activity for students. Like so many other things that we discover here, though, it requires technology that we simply do not have access to. We do not have hand held GPS systems and I can't imagine giving my students my own IPHONE to use for an activity. In addition, the teacher as a technology teacher was working with an Algebra teacher. Thus, there were two teachers working with a small class of perhaps 12 students.
In the end, I really liked the concept. The students enjoyed the field trip away from the classroom. They then spent a week creating the stories and clues. Many of the students according to Ritter-Guth found the most challenging aspect of the entire project to be the time in the classroom. Students had to think backwards from their solutions in the graveyard to create stories and clues for the other algebra class. Students were not used to thinking in this manner. In and of itself, I think it is valuable to have students go through an exercise in backwards design.
I may try geocaching this spring with my family. Even though I did not love her presentation, I really did like the concept of it. Still, I think it will be a long time before I have access to the technology to create activities for my students using this technology in my classroom.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Googlios: A 21st – Century Approach to Teaching, Learning, & Assessment
I chose to reflect on the "Googlios" video because I really like using Google and all of its products. That said, I thought the concept of a "Googlio" was VERY cool! It is just so impressive-- never ceases to amaze me-- how easy and convenient Google tools are to use. I am going to be getting some practice using these tools with my digital sharing project, in which I am creating a department website.
At the beginning of the video, the author talked about how there are schools that use Google as their email provider. I have a friend who teaches in Wayland, and she told me that her school recently switched over to using Google. I have to admit that I was jealous-- I have a bunch of Google email accounts for different things that I do, and in comparison to FirstClass, I think it is far superior (although First Class did just come out with a new iPhone app!). I just think of making a teacher website on FirstClass versus using Google Sites, and there is absolutely no comparison. I was wondering though, when schools use Google as their email provider, does Google charge a fee (the email service is normally free)?
While Google would be useful for teachers, I also believe that it would be useful for all students to have Gmail accounts. Especially with the advent of Google Wave, which I'm guessing will be available to everyone at some point, classes could "Wave" together too. There are so many communication opportunities that are possible just using Google's communication tools.
Another tool that I like, being a Social Studies teacher, is the Google News site. You can completely customize your news page to show stories that you are interested in. For my current events assignment that my students do on our wiki, I created a customized news page showing only the places in the world that my students were following. I was trying to figure out how I could share this and embed it on my wiki (I haven't figured it out yet), but that would be another way for students to find information on their topics, while looking in one spot, but at a multitude of news sources-- all thanks to Google just making life easier. Pretty awesome.
There are so many other Google tools that I find interesting (I like the Reader, Picasa, Calendar, Docs, and other that I use), but one point that the author of the video made was that our students are "DFLs" (Digital First Language or Digital Natives) and that many teachers are "DSLs" (Digital Second Language or Digital Immigrants). While I feel pretty native/comfortable myself, I understand why it can be difficult for many teachers. That being said, I am pleased to see so many "immigrants" trying to learn so that they can relate to their students. There is so much energy right now towards 21st century learning, and I think some progress is being made. There are fascinating ideas out there.
All of these fascinating ideas are not worth as much when there is not the proper support to implement them. The author asks, "can schools and educators adapt fast enough to meet the next generation?" I hope so. But, I was discouraged today at school by what I perceive as a problem that should not be happening if we are serious about implementing 21st century skills that we're so enthusiastic about. I simply tried to open a PDF file and print it out today on a school computer (I usually use my personal laptop with no problems), and sat there... and sat there... and sat there... you get it. Spinning wheel of death. So I gave up trying to print a document.
I am hopeful about all of the things that the author talks about. I see so many great things on the horizon, and I find the idea of a "Googlio" to be so fascinating. All of these great ideas need real support, and I hope that schools, cities, towns, the state, and the federal government rise to the challenge and make things happen.
Probing the Prospects of Paperless Pedagogy by Jason Neiffer
I watched this presentation because I am intrigued with the possibility of creating a truly “paperless classroom.” Jason Neiffer is a high school social studies teacher who requested that his World Cultures class meet every day in a computer lab so that he could create a “paperless classroom.”
Why be paperless? First, as Neiffer rightly points out, teachers and students alike waste tons and tons of paper each year. Second, Neiffer was looking for more efficiency. The more he would assign, the more papers he would carry around with him (as an English teacher, I certainly sympathize with him on this!) – and the greater likelihood of something getting misplaced or lost. Third, Neiffer reasons that working one-on-one with computers will prepare students for their futures in college and in the workforce.
Going paperless also made sense in the context of the content in his World Cultures course, which focuses upon current events throughout the world. While textbooks are good resources for background material, they quickly become out-of-date where current events are concerned. In the past, he found himself printing out articles on a weekly basis to supplement his textbook. Essentially, his course had become a “tree-eating machine” (20 pages of handouts per week x 60 students x weeks per school year).
Neiffer’s goal, he says, was to “exist as much as possible completely online as a complement to my face-to-face classroom.” To achieve this, he posted all his classroom content to his classroom Moodle, which Neiffer lauds as an “excellent blank slate” to post content. Moodle – in addition to other sites – also provide templates for test and quizzes to be taken online: no need to make copies of a simple reading or vocabulary quiz!
At the end of his presentation, Neiffer conducts a self-assessment. He is proud to have achieved a paperless classroom. He also believes that it has increased accountability for both him and his students: there are no more excuses for assignments being lost or misplaced; absent students also have no excuse about missing the material because they can access everything from home. In addition, Neiffer believes his students are more engaged. While engagement does not mean “learning,” he says, it is a prerequisite for it. What he would like to improve: there is still a digital divide. While most of his students have access to home computers, some of them do not have any home access. He also would prefer that students have access to laptops, which they could bring home and use full time: they would know the machine and its tools.
The paperless classroom that Neiffer describes sounds wonderful. I couldn’t help but wonder, however, how the class is conducted on a day-to-day basis. For example, if the students are all seated in front of computers, does it inhibit class discussion? How does he ensure that all students are on-target instead of surfing the Web? That said, I highly recommend that other teachers watch this presentation; it is both useful and informative.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Wizard of Apps
Joyce Valenza's presentation on the Wizard of Apps was both entertaining and informative. She addressed many areas that have concerned me and offered numerous resources Unfortunately, I found it difficult to see the printed word on her presentation as it was blurry (despite my new glasses). She did offer other methods for viewing her material. I found her overall presentation to be a great resource and something that I could see myself returning to when looking for new apps to try. The quality of the video and rate of presentation did not allow me to gather all of the facts in the first viewing, but I now know of one location where I could gain a lot of ideas and sites to try. One of my personal concerns has been the public aspect of the digital footprint I have been creating and I have become worried when I have googled myself, as well as when I have googled my children. I now know of some other tools for looking at our footprints and will research them. I am also interested in looking further into the videos Joyce referenced regarding privacy settings on facebook and looking at the thatsnotcool website. The options out there are vast and exciting. The exploration of these sites is an ongoing endeavor and I am pleased that I have been taking these initial steps since September. These are only the first steps of what will be a marathon, or perhaps just daily jogs. What is most important is that I am now willing to take those steps for that little jog and expand my ways that I had not previously considered. It was also interesting to me that when a presentation incorporates pieces with which I personally connect, the investment of at least this viewer increases significantly. I found myself smiling and nodding along as I viewed this video. To summarize my current journey (music please), Twitters and wikis and blogs, OH MY!!
Parallel Play or Collaboration: Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work
Since I am currently creating a wiki, I was interested in viewing Paula White's K12Online presentation discussing how to use wikis in the classroom to enhance collaboration and engagement. She discussed important variables to consider in facilitating engaged learning including task choices, novelty and variety, and authenticity stressing the fact that students have to want to be engaged. According to Phil levels of engagement, rebellion and engagement are at opposites end of the continuum. At the rebellion level students refuse to participate, often attempting to disrupt the class and reduce engagement of other classmates. She stated that use of wikis initially generate increased engagement; her goal was to sustain this level of engagement and encourage collaboration and conversations among students instead of working alone. I agree with her that it is important to discover students' passions; wikis provide opportunities for students to explore and share their passions.
According to White, collaboration is the process of shared creation where something new is created by working together, expressing diverse opinions, and completing a variety of tasks. At the end of the presentation, she also discussed the importance of educators collaborating in the effort to leverage technology for engaged learning among our students. She encouraged her audience to visit and contribute to two wikis, Visual Blooms and Blooms Rubrics, that have been created for sharing how to integrate web 2.0 tools with Bloom's taxonomy in generating tasks and rubrics for facilitating and evaluating engaged student learning.
According to White, collaboration is the process of shared creation where something new is created by working together, expressing diverse opinions, and completing a variety of tasks. At the end of the presentation, she also discussed the importance of educators collaborating in the effort to leverage technology for engaged learning among our students. She encouraged her audience to visit and contribute to two wikis, Visual Blooms and Blooms Rubrics, that have been created for sharing how to integrate web 2.0 tools with Bloom's taxonomy in generating tasks and rubrics for facilitating and evaluating engaged student learning.
Monday, January 4, 2010
K12 Online Conference: Using E-Books to Motivate Pupils Writing by Colin Hill
This primary school teacher from the UK demonstrates how to creawte an e-book. His students recently created a poetry e-book and an Ancient Greece e-book. Above all, Hill touts this exercise as an opportunity for authentic assessment. Aware that people are going to view their work online, students, he says, work with "that little extra sense of pressure" and pride. In terms of numbers of visitors to his site, the work Hill has done with his classes has certainly paid off. The poetry book has garnered around 13,000 views. The Ancient Greece book, he says, received around 5,000 views since September (and counting).
The e-book is an alternative method for teachers to compile student work and display it. A class Web site can essentially accomplish the same goal. The e-book, however, looks very much like an actual book, complete with cover and the sound of pages flipping as readers browse through. To see a student's work more closely, the viewer can zoom in.
Hill also got his students to read their entries about various Ancient Greek topics -- menus, temples, Olympic games, the Odyssey -- so that viewers can listen to the children themselves. hill found the recording component a great lesson for students to check their own handwriting legibility as well as to check for clarity in their writing.
I applaud Mr. Hill for taking so much time to scan his students' work and for giving the students such a wide audience for their efforts. It really is a great product. You can find the Ancient Greece book, as well as other e-books, at http://www.myebook.com.
This resource seems like a straightforwrard but time-consuming tool. I'm not sure if it makes sense for my literature students, but I could see how such a site could be very handy for a creative writing or an art class.
The e-book is an alternative method for teachers to compile student work and display it. A class Web site can essentially accomplish the same goal. The e-book, however, looks very much like an actual book, complete with cover and the sound of pages flipping as readers browse through. To see a student's work more closely, the viewer can zoom in.
Hill also got his students to read their entries about various Ancient Greek topics -- menus, temples, Olympic games, the Odyssey -- so that viewers can listen to the children themselves. hill found the recording component a great lesson for students to check their own handwriting legibility as well as to check for clarity in their writing.
I applaud Mr. Hill for taking so much time to scan his students' work and for giving the students such a wide audience for their efforts. It really is a great product. You can find the Ancient Greece book, as well as other e-books, at http://www.myebook.com.
This resource seems like a straightforwrard but time-consuming tool. I'm not sure if it makes sense for my literature students, but I could see how such a site could be very handy for a creative writing or an art class.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
K12 Online Conference: Options for Building Your Teacher Website
I currently am working on a Wiki for my AP Lit class for a unit on Pride and Prejudice, but I’m curious about other resources available to build a teacher Website. I had used Moodle at my last school and I found it very useful and user-friendly, but I know there are many other formats I could use. Cyndi Danner-Kuhn's presentation gave me a variety of different options to explore.
Danner-Kuhn is a professor of education, and she advocates that every teacher have a Website. Her reasons are persuasive, efficiency being a major reason, as it helps educators gain teaching time. Absent students, on a very practical level, for example, are able to catch up more quickly with work missed. But far beyond that, students gain access to far more curriculum resources they can use outside of the classroom. Consistent connection with students and families is also a major benefit of a teacher Web site.
Danner-Kuhn provides a list of resources sites that she contends are easy, free, and user friendly.
Among them:
http://www.wix.com (a Flash website)
http://www.web.com
In introducing these resources, Danner-Kuhn points to some model teacher Web sites, several of which post student work, which I thought was an interesting feature (though student privacy is a concern of mine). On some teacher Web sites, students have the ability to create their own, separate Web pages, which may present some possibilities, such as an online portfolio. Again, student privacy is one of my concerns, but I think that this potentially is an excellent tool.
K12 Online Conference: Steal this Preso: Copyrights, Fair Use, and Pirates in the Classroom
I chose to watch this presentation because I'm concerned about the frequent practice students have of taking images, music and video from the Internet for use in projects. They really don't seem to understand the concept of intellectual property.
In this presentation, elementary school teacher Matthew Needleman provides many useful tips on how to be respectful of intellectual property. While he does not claim to be an “expert” on this topic, he does speak from personal experience. As a teacher, he spent many hours after school creating his own Web site. Eventually, he put ads on his Web page and was able to earn about 20 cents a day, an amount essentially reimbursing him for some of what he put into the site. He talks about the frustration he felt in later finding his own Power Points on other teachers’ Web sites. As he explains, he put in his own time and money to create these “free” resources; now people can stop going to his Web page to circumvent the advertising, without which his resources would not exist. “Free to you does not mean free,” he concludes.
Needleman addresses the Fair Use Doctrine and stresses how quickly multimedia projects these days end up beyond the four walls of a teacher's classroom once they are posted on web sites. Needleman also spent some time discussing the use of copyrighted music in movie projects. Because it’s not often feasible for students or teachers to get permission from both the songwriter and the person who owns the recording for use in a project, he recommends using royalty free music. What I found most useful about Needleman’s presentation was his tips on using royalty free music and images. One resource for music is Garage Band, which I know is available on the Sharon Public School computers. Another avenue is using music in the public domain, which, unfortunately, is very limited. His other suggestion is using creative commons license music and images, which are available at this site: http://creativecommons.org/
Needleman also suggests using his own blog as a resource: Creating Lifelong Learners, http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/.
In the end, I agree with Needleman's assessment that we as teachers have to teach students how to be “responsible citizens in this new digital world.”
Friday, January 1, 2010
Now I know why I don't preview!!
This is writing number two....I decided to preview my last post and instead lost it.
My post is about the skyping online conference. I was relieved to hear the presenter talk about being prepared for technical difficulties and to have an alternate plan. I feel this can not be understated. Having just gone through 4 months of using skype to communicate with my son while he was overseas, while it was an amazing tool, it was also extremely frustrating. Every conversation we had was marred by long periods of frozen conversation and pictures and dropped calls, hardly conducive to seamless communication. I wonder how much I would have persevered if it was not such an emotionally charged connection I was seeking. I was happy even seeing his frozen image, but when I had important information that had to be conveyed, it was done via the more reliable written word. I cannot imagine how frustrated I would be if I were trying to work on something for the classroom and had similar technical difficulties.
I had experienced many technical difficulties with skype on my daughter's computer, but decided to add it to my own so that I could try communicating with my son independently. Immediately after adding it, my computer crashed, eventually requiring reimaging. While talking to technical support from the computer company, they said the problem was due to my having added skype. Were they correct? I don't know, but skype has not been added back onto my computer because I am not willing to take that risk. I think the concept of using skype for working on projects with people from other parts of the world is very exciting but fraught with challenges. I don't know if, as we enter this digital age and culture, we will all become more adept at dealing with technological glitches, or if, as we get past the first 10th of the 21st century, these tools become more reliable and we therefore experience fewer technological glitches. I do know that, had my communication with my son been out of a need to get a task done, the frustration would have increased. When listening to these online conferences, there have been many where the video/audio freeze and skip and I then need to choose a different talk. How does one deal with these things in a classroom, especially when their technology equipment may be less sophisticated? Even though I am extremely proud of where I am regarding my ability to problem-solve when my technology goes awry, it is an extremely time consuming proposition and not easily accomplished within a classroom environment. During this course, my technological challenges have been many, 3 computer near-death experiences, all requiring starting up with an essentially new and naked computer, inability to view many videos, forgetting of my passwords for my blogs, wikis, nings, etc. and other problems I have erased from my personal working memory. When you think about the need for careful timing for the communication with a faraway classroom, I personally would be frightened to invest too much of my teaching in the likelihood of the alignment of all of the needs working at the same time. Not only does my equipment and my counterpart's equipment have to be in working order, our connections need to work,from where I sit with how technology has worked for me for the past four months, it seems more likely that I would find a four leaf clover!
My post is about the skyping online conference. I was relieved to hear the presenter talk about being prepared for technical difficulties and to have an alternate plan. I feel this can not be understated. Having just gone through 4 months of using skype to communicate with my son while he was overseas, while it was an amazing tool, it was also extremely frustrating. Every conversation we had was marred by long periods of frozen conversation and pictures and dropped calls, hardly conducive to seamless communication. I wonder how much I would have persevered if it was not such an emotionally charged connection I was seeking. I was happy even seeing his frozen image, but when I had important information that had to be conveyed, it was done via the more reliable written word. I cannot imagine how frustrated I would be if I were trying to work on something for the classroom and had similar technical difficulties.
I had experienced many technical difficulties with skype on my daughter's computer, but decided to add it to my own so that I could try communicating with my son independently. Immediately after adding it, my computer crashed, eventually requiring reimaging. While talking to technical support from the computer company, they said the problem was due to my having added skype. Were they correct? I don't know, but skype has not been added back onto my computer because I am not willing to take that risk. I think the concept of using skype for working on projects with people from other parts of the world is very exciting but fraught with challenges. I don't know if, as we enter this digital age and culture, we will all become more adept at dealing with technological glitches, or if, as we get past the first 10th of the 21st century, these tools become more reliable and we therefore experience fewer technological glitches. I do know that, had my communication with my son been out of a need to get a task done, the frustration would have increased. When listening to these online conferences, there have been many where the video/audio freeze and skip and I then need to choose a different talk. How does one deal with these things in a classroom, especially when their technology equipment may be less sophisticated? Even though I am extremely proud of where I am regarding my ability to problem-solve when my technology goes awry, it is an extremely time consuming proposition and not easily accomplished within a classroom environment. During this course, my technological challenges have been many, 3 computer near-death experiences, all requiring starting up with an essentially new and naked computer, inability to view many videos, forgetting of my passwords for my blogs, wikis, nings, etc. and other problems I have erased from my personal working memory. When you think about the need for careful timing for the communication with a faraway classroom, I personally would be frightened to invest too much of my teaching in the likelihood of the alignment of all of the needs working at the same time. Not only does my equipment and my counterpart's equipment have to be in working order, our connections need to work,from where I sit with how technology has worked for me for the past four months, it seems more likely that I would find a four leaf clover!
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