Read this blog post by Jen Wagner on the Tech & Learning website. She is coming at this as a person that teaches teachers rather than a classroom teacher teaching students...but the same premise holds true. I believe this is what naturally happens when we put the focus on the tool vs. on the student learning. Make sure you read the comments people left...there is some good stuff to chew on there (particularly the one from Michele Weiss-Glaza...I'm guessing many of you felt the same way when you walked into this class). Remember, most often, the learning comes in the commentary...when people share their thoughts...agree...disagree...see a new perspective, etc.
What are your thoughts?
How have you seen this Oooooo-Ahhhh phenomenon play out in your school?
What is one “tool” that you see getting lost in the Oooo-Ahhh and how are you using it (or how would you like to use it) within your classroom (or school) as an Ahhh-Haaa?
Learn more about wikis by going through this Wiki Walkthrough.
Hover over each question with your mouse within the blue bordered box... Basics, What is a wiki?, Who uses a wiki?, wiki vs. blog to read the text..then click the right arrow at the bottom of the bordered box to move to the next screen where you roll over the next set of questions...How to use a wiki, choose a subject to look at, then read the text...click the right arrow again to move to the next page, and continue until you come to the end of the walk through.
What are your thoughts about wikis? Did you learn anything new or interesting about wikis?
Glogster is a web tool that has gained popularity in the last couple years as an alternative to the traditional poster assignment. Glogster can be used in a variety of ways...but essentially it is a way to integrate media like pictures, video, and hyperlinks into a collage type digital poster.
Click here and then find the yellow cloud on the right side of the page titled "How to use Glogster." Underneath it is a video with 2 guys in black standing and the words "Play Me" underneath it. Click on the play button on that video and it will go through a video on ways Glogster is used. (several of the videos embedded on this glog will not play at school as they are likely hosted on youtube).
If you're interested, here is a wiki site that has a tutorial about Glogster embedded inside of an actual Glog. (click the play button on the video on the right side of the screen to view the tutorial).
Here and here you will find examples of how a media specialist created glogs to share resources with students and teachers. A teacher could easily replicate this idea for a variety of different projects...book or character projects, biographical posters on authors, explorers, historical leaders, etc. You'll notice that both of these Glogs are embedded into their school wiki.
Like many of the web 2.0 tools...there is a basic free inidividual account as well as several levels of premium educator accounts that allows for classroom management features and more options. Here is the comparison chart. Teachers can get a 30 trial premium account to try it out when they register.
What do you think of Glogster? Can you see any meaningful uses for it? What can Glogster offer over the traditional poster assignment?
A screencast is basically a video created from a computer desktop to illustrate a process or concept or demonstrate how to do something.
Go to the Khan Academy website which houses thousands of screencasts about different topics. Khan Academy began as an initiative to allow people to learn math concepts which is why the site is heavy on math content but is now expanding to other subject areas. Scroll down the page to browse the available titles. Find a couple screencasts interesting to you and watch them. (I watched the one on the electoral college and learned a lot.)
Read this blog post from an english teacher who is using screencasting to grade student papers.
For those interested, here is her follow up post that shows real student examples that she posted as a result of people commenting on her post and asking her to share them.
Ideally, I would like to see your final project something related to the focus you set for yourself at the onset of class, however I understand if your focus may have shifted over the course of the last few months based on what you have been learning and exploring.
The point of this project is for you to take an idea you have or have thought about...and DO IT. Sometimes a nudge is all that is needed to get off the ledge. It's easy to sit back and ponder and think about doing something that is uncomfortable or foreign or just plain scary...but you will never learn to do it, or how to do it, or how not to do it....until you DO IT.
You are not going to be evaluated on whether it comes out perfectly or is a completely finished product...hopefully, it won't be. Hopefully it will be the beginning of something. You are going to be evaluated on why and how it was developed and is intended to be used, what the purpose is, how you incorporate/demonstrate what you've learned in the class, how well thought out, designed and organized it is, as well as what is the vision or plan for it's use in the future. The final project is the IT and may be part of your final reflection paper. Part of your reflection can be explaining the answers to these questions as well as explaining any obstacles or failures or what didn't go the way you wanted and how you dealt with those disappointments and will change things as a result of them...in essence, what did you learn along the way?
If you've already started your project or have decided what you want to do post a comment here and let us know what it is.
We will talk more about the project and reflection paper in class next week.
These little squares that contain black and white pixels are popping up everywhere. They are called QR codes short for quick response codes. Here is a site to easily create a QR code. I generated the QR code above that contains a secret message...so if you have a smartphone that can read QR codes give it a whirl. Read this blog post by Ozge Karaoglu that explain QR codes and some ideas of how they can be used in school.
Watch this 3 minute Youtube video from a school that has some interesting ways they are using QR codes in their school for a variety of purposes.
What are your thoughts about QR codes? Where have you noticed these QR codes in your daily life? What purpose or application for them in a school or classroom environment can you see?
A controversial topic in schools today is the use of cellphones. Read this insightful post from Shannon Gladieux, "How will the next generation read and write?" (it's actually more of an article than a blog post...as it cites the research she used). Her essay does a particularly good job of explaining how and why "text speak"originated and why it will continue...a fact that I think parents and educators need to consider.
So...where do you stand on the issue of literacy and texting? Which side of the fence are you sitting on with cellphones in school and why? What are your thoughts? Any new insights?
In the next couple weeks we'll be looking at social networking. I'm going to give you a few resources here so that you can come to class armed with some background knowledge. Basically, Twitter is a social networking tool...people that are connected together via a network. Twitter is also considered a "microblogging" tool. Although it doesn't have a traditional blog format, it can accomplish some of the same things...yet on a smaller..."micro" scale. Twitter only allows a person to use 140 characters per post...called a "tweet."
Read through this post from Jeff Utecht on how his use of Twitter as a teacher created some great communication opportunities for a class of 5th graders.
Read this blog post by Lisa Nielsen on the Tech and Learning website about different ways Twitter is being used in education. Here is a link to another of her posts about how tweets can be integrated into a class newspaper display using site called paper.li. It's a pretty neat application that integrates with Twitter that could be used a variety of ways in a classroom.
Scan through this pretty good no nonsenselist with using twitter...practical advice, do's and don'ts, and an interesting list of things people say about the use of twitter.
Respond to : What are your thoughts about Twitter? Do you have a new or different understanding or perspective about how teachers are using it? Is Twitter something you would like to investigate further or try out? How do you see Twitter being used in a Personal Learning Network?
If you are especially interested in learning more about Twitter, here are a few good resources.
If you want to see some other ideas you can page through 35 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom. (notice the Creative Commons licensing) Tom Barrett from the UK has put together a google doc presentation (if you click the link and open it, it will then be saved in your Google Docs) which compiles a myriad of ways Twitter is being used by educators all over the world. You can click the page for it to advance to the next slide...or there are navigational arrows in the bottom left corner of the page.
Here is a very good Twitter tutorial video that shows you how to use many of the features of Twitter. The tutorial is divided into 2-3 minute clips each so you can use the table of contents at the left and click on the feature you want to learn about.
Although Creative Commons has been around nearly a decade, many teachers and students are unfamiliar with what it is and why they should know about it. Creative Commons was founded out of the need for people who wanted to share content they created with other people on the web and not be bound by restrictive copyright licensing. Creative Commons licensing allows creators to decide how their work can be used, shared, and remixed by others. You might ask, "Well what does that have to do with what I do in my classroom?" Well...if you assign projects that require the use of any multimedia culled from the web such as video, audio, images, photography, etc...then Creative Commons has everything to do with what you do in your classroom.
The clip below I'd like you to watch is around 19 minutes long...and will explain what Creative Commons is and how it's used. The first 10 min and 45 seconds is the main content I'm interested in you learning...you're welcome to watch the whole thing....the rest of the clip gives examples of how people around the world are using it.
While you and your students may be creating and/or sharing content on the web that is not the primary reason of teaching you about Creative Commons. My main purpose in exposing you to Creative Commons is from an "end user" or consumer standpoint like when you or your students are searching for content to use like pictures, music, video, audio, worksheets, etc
How does knowing about Creative Commons licensing change your thinking or perspective on your use or student use of content on the web?
Why is it important for all educators to be aware of, teach about, and/or adhere to Creative Commons licensing?
Watch this 4 minute video titled Digital Dossier (linked from youtube) which exposes the extent to which our digital footprint travels and follows us throughout our life. While it may be disconcerting to think about how much information about us and our families is available in the cloud...the reality is that there are only certain portions of that we can control.
Read this blog post by Terry Freedman, well known and respected educator from the UK. In his post, he acknowledges that we can't avoid a digital identity but gives some ideas about how to manage it. Read through this blog post Controlling Your Digital Identity is as Easy as 1, 2, 3, where Lisa Nielsen summarizes some significant points she gleaned from a conference she attended where ed tech expert, Dean Shareski spoke. Also included at the bottom of the post is Shareski's Slideshare presentation if you are interested in paging through it.
So....what are your thoughts? Is a digital footprint something you've thought about before now? What do you think about the points or strategies made in these posts? Under what circumstances do you see your own (or your students...or your family members, etc) digital footprint being something worth considering or managing? What, if any, signifigance does this have for us as educators and/or parents?
We have discussed the tpack model of putting the focus on content as a first step in the instructional planning process and/or identifying a need, weakness, or problem (for curriculum or non-curriculum) will result in more meaningful and effective uses of technology as well as higher levels of learning. Research that has been done points us in that direction, and while it may not always be easy and obstacle free, if our primary goal is to reach and teach students well, we will work toward that end.
In order to facilitate this approach, you've been asked to think about these 3 questions over the past few weeks and identify a few areas, issues, problems that you want to work or focus on as you move through this class. You can identify all curriculum related issues or mix them with a couple personal/professional related issues.
1. What is the content/concept/skill you are trying to teach? (or what do you want to be able to do)
2. What issue/problem in your classroom or personal/professional life needs solving or an improvement made?
3. What types of activities/strategies/actions do you want to do/use? (or want your students to do/use)
You may want to construct this in a word processor if you are thinking and working on it and then paste into the comment section. If you don't have it all figured out yet, don't worry...try to identify at least one to get started. Once you've identified the items above...it will help to narrow the focus of the types of tools you will want to investigate further as we move forward.
Use the comment section to respond so that as a class if someone runs across an idea or or has a possible solution or advice we can share our collective knowledge.
Watch this voicethread below by clicking the play button. (click the yellow X to close the profile prompt box and then click the play button in the middle of the player and the voicethread will start.)
It will explain what a voicethread is, how it can be used, how to navigate around, as well as the different commenting options available. It also gives some good examples of the variety of ways a voicethread can be used. Listen to the voicethread page with the portrait of the 1950's mother with her kids...it's too funny. And Jack, the creator of Sword Dragon man, is so cute talking about his picture.
Here is a good example of how an elementary class used voicethread for a poetry project. You can let it run automatically and you'll hear and see the comments on each page or you can click through a couple of the pages by using the arrow in the lower irght corner of the voicethread...and randomly listen/read some of the comments people left. Also watch for how people used the annotation feature. (don't listen to the whole thing..it's too long)
Here is a place to browse different voicethreads on the voicethread site. Take a look around. You can also use the search box to search by keyword if you want to look for particular subjects like literature or poetry, or search for a specific name of a book, animals, tutorials, names of different web 2.0 tools, etc.
You can also browse through these examples grades 6-8 and examples in 9-12 by viewing the embedded voicethreads on the page (notice they are posted on a wiki!). Here is a database of different voicethread ideas by subject matter. You can use the menu at the right to select a subject.
Talk back....
What are your thoughts about Voicethread? Would it fill a need in your classroom? What ideas do you have about how it could be used meaningfully with students? Did you see anything as you browsed around that sparked an idea for you?
2. Do your takeaways from class this week on your google doc.
3. Read the "What is RSS?" post and complete the activity explained there.
4. There are dozens of videos on the web with people talking about what a PLN is and how it has transformed their learning and teaching. I watched dozens of them trying to find one that captured what I wanted to convey without a bunch of academic jargon or theoretical rhetoric...the one I settled on is very simplistic (it's actually a slideshow turned into video) but articulates thoughts from dozens of actual teachers that took a survey about their own PLNs last year. You can either watch the slideshow here at Youtube (4 min.) OR read the same information on this blog. Then take a minute and scan through the actual results of the PLN survey here paying particular attention to the last column "why is your PLN important to you?"
Respond to this question in the comment section of this post:
What did you find interesting or notable about these teachers' comments? Share your thoughts.
Click on the link below, watch the 14 minute video, then post your response with these questions in mind...
What ideas, thoughts, strategies did you identify with?
What was most interesting?
Did you see any technologies that would solve a problem or fit a need in your life/classroom/school? If so, explain.
Post your comments by noon of next class on Oct 11 for full credit.
