Thing 23

Take a few moments to reflect on your journey. You've covered a lot of material over the past ten weeks. What does it all mean? How has your thinking changed between Thing 1 and Thing 23? Do you see the trends that Hargadon writes about in a different light than when you read about them in Thing 1? Has this program changed how you view the Internet or how you view education in the digital world? What plans have you made for using these tools in and out of the classroom? How will you continue to learn about Web 2.0 tools? What are your big "take aways" from this experience? The biggest "take aways" for me after covering all of the material has been that we are not mere one-way recipients of information. For real learning to occur then we must look at concepts in a variety of different ways, we must collaborate with others, share with others, and practice muliple ways to access and give information. It's not enough to simply teach our students facts. They must learn to access information themselves and they should have they opportunity to learn with others. When I began on Thing 1 I never dreamed of the many different ways there were available to impart information and learning experiences to my students. Allowing them time to collaborate and share their ideas with their peers is very important and often overlooked in a classroom setting. I am realizing now how highly social humans are and how important it is to communicate our thoughts and feelings to others. There is no one way to receive information and it shouldn't take multiple steps and lots of time to receive information. There are also multiple ways to allow our students to prove their understanding of concepts on a higher level. These 23 things should be utilized to challenge our students. I can't believe how many tools there are to utilize in the classroom and I feel as though my learning has just scratched the surface. I definitely feel motivated to use many of these tools I have learned about and wish I had more time to get started. I enjoyed this journey!

Thing 22

In your blog post be sure to include the link to your wiki. Then discuss your feelings about using a wiki. How does a wiki differ from a blog? When is one more appropriate to use than the other? The link to my wiki is http://elaplus.wikispaces.com/ I think I need to learn more about wikis before I could use them well in the classroom. I tried to set up a project within my wiki, but I'm not sure how that works exactly. I set up my home page with the beginnings of an assignment, but I wasn't sure where the students could begin to add their work and edit. Can you add a page to the home page or do you create a project as I did? It seems as though the primary difference between a blog and a wiki is that students can contribute work toward a blog, but cannot change the design of the blog itself. Students can be more involved in the actual design of a wiki. It seems as though if you just wanted students to prove their understanding of something, then a blog would be most suitable. If students created the project from scratch, then maybe a wiki would be more suitable. I have always used a blog and so I am most comfortable with it. I think you would have to monitor a wiki much more carefully, but it would give students more creative license.

Thing 21

Describe a wiki you found that inspires you to create one of your own. What hurdles might stand in the way of your using a wiki? What would it take to remove the hurdles? Is it worth the fight? I loved the idea of a school having its own Wiki page. I looked at the Arbor Heights Elementary School Wiki. It would really be nice to have a school website Wiki page that many people had access to. I noticed that it had a calendar on its page that everyone could update as needed. There were even classroom supply lists posted that teachers would be able to set up and change as needed. I guess that the good thing about having a school Wiki page like this one is that the information would more than likely be current and accurate. It would also make less work for any one person. Collaboration is a great thing. I also enjoyed looking at the classroom Wiki pages, such as the Cool Cat Teacher Blog on the Westwood Schools Wiki page. This teacher has a wonderful blog set up that contains many different pages. She has projects set up on her blog that students can edit and contribute to. I was really inspired by this. I can see that one hurdle that might stand in my way is that it would simply take a lot of monitoring once the Wiki page is set up. I would have to look to make sure that any student contribution is accurate and appropriate. Just as Wikipedia is not always a trusted resource, my Wiki page might not always contain accurate student work. If the quality of the Wiki page isn't great, it could adversely affect the learning of other students who might receive someone's false information. It would take a really organized teacher to maintain an accurage, focused Wiki page. I believe if I were to start out with just a small project, I could really learn a lot about how to manage a Wiki page and I know it would be enjoyable for my students. I would just have to make sure that students were really learning from the experience!

Thing 20

Include in your post the name of at least one podcast to which you subscribed. Describe your experience using the various search tools. Which do you prefer and why? I just subscribed to the Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips, which is a writing/grammar podcast that has apparently won awards. I listened to the description of it during Thing 19 and it piqued my interest. I subscribed to this podcast for free in I Tunes. I am really used to using I Tunes already, so it was really easy. I also enjoyed browsing the Podcast Alley site, but I agree that you would have to be careful if your students were on this site. I saw lots of explicit podcasts that I wouldn't want my students to have access to. Any of the sites that I just learned about seem easy enough to use. I look forward to having more time to browse these sites and subscribe to more podcasts!

Thing 19

Which podcasts did you find interesting? Identify one or two podcasts and describe how you would use them in your work. (Be sure to include links in your blog entry to the podcasts mentioned.) I loved browsing and learning about the different types of podcasts available. Now that I have learned what they are, I am very motivated to use them and maybe even create my own with students. I loved the podcasts created by students, for students. I was really impressed with the RadioWillowWeb site. I will include the link for this site. Radio WillowWeb This site included many different subjects that students have researched and reported on. What a great way to celebrate learning! It is obvious that students have taken ownership for their learning topics and feel confident about what they have learned. I can see myself having students create podcasts at the culmination of a unit of study. I read a novel with my students this year and wish I could have assigned chapters to students and had them create a podcast for their chapter. I also enjoyed the professional development podcasts that I browsed. Our principal often gives us informatin about Mike Flanagan's podcasts. These podcasts are helpful in allowing us to stay current in our knowledge of education in the state of Michigan. Here is Mike Flanagan's link. MI State Superintendent of Education, Mike Flanagan Although I am not a science teacher, I know that our district currently is struggling with low science MEAP scores. I'll bet that science teachers could really benefit from the K-12 Science in Michigan site by Dave Bydlowski. He really does a great job of breaking down the standards by grade level. This could be a real help to science teachers. Here is that link. K12 Science in Michigan

Thing 18

What did you like about the presentation you embedded? How might Slideshare be useful in the classroom? out of the classroom? Here is a Slideshare presentation that I might be interested in showing my students. This presentation focused on using non-fiction reading strategies effectively. I really liked this presentation because it listed many familiar strategies used in tackling the reading of non-fiction. The presentation is simplistic, yet full of information. It is colorful and appealing. I could create my own presentation, but why reinvent the wheel? I think it would be so helpful to be able to search for presentations to use with my students without having to do all of the difficult work of creating them myself. I noticed that some of the more popular presentations were simple how-to presentations that could be placed on a blog or site to help students. These presentations would be very helpful tools. I noticed that they even had a travel section of presentations. I love to travel when out of the classroom. I can see myself watching a presentation before taking a trip somewhere. You could receive lots of helpful travel tips.

Reading Strategies

View more PowerPoint from Barbara Yardley

Thing 17

Give a review of the tool you explored - what worked, what didn't work, how might it be used in your personal or professional life?

I set up an account for Remember the Milk.  I have struggled to find the best way to stay organized.  Like most people, I have commitments at work and at home.  Many people use their Google calendar, but I haven't used mine yet.  The Remember the Milk site allows people to set up an account and then to set up tasks that they must complete or appointments to remember.  The tasks/appointments can be tagged and given priority level.  These tasks are also sent as reminders to your e-mail account.  I had a lot of fun playing around on this site and could see myself using it for sure.  It really helps me to receive an e-mail reminder.  I check my e-mail often throughout the day.  Sometimes I forget to check my paper calendar, so an e-mail reminder would work really well for me.

Everything seemed to work well for me on this site.  There are shortcut letters on this site that stand for certain things.  It would probably take a while to learn the shortcuts and what they stand for if you were to attach those to your appointments/tasks.  Maybe I wouldn't even necessarily need to use them.

I would use this site both in my personal and professional life.  I could keep track of my work deadlines and obligations as well as my social calendar and daughter's activities.

Thing 16

How might you use this tool in your personal and professional life? What issues come to mind about using this tool with students (ie, they need email addresses to log-in)?

I love using Google Docs and actually have a different account in addition to the school account.  It has been a little confusing because I had been asking people to share documents from the school account to my home account.  It would probably be much easier to just use the two accounts separately.  What do people do with all of these accounts for everything?  I need to get organized!

I first set up my Google Docs account when I began teaching Title 1 classes.  I used it to keep track of behavior issues related to my students.  If I had incidents or spoke to parents I  would document it.  I never shared it, but thought that I could if it became necessary.  I also use Google Docs for my "summer job", which is Concessions Chair for our swim team club.  I have to run our concession stands at our home swim meets and it requires a lot of volunteer help and food donations.  All of the families have access to my Google Docs spreadsheet which allows them to sign up to bring food to the meets and also to volunteer to work shifts during the meets.  It really helps keep everyone organized!

I have never used Google Docs with students, but I can imagine that they would have to be trained to use it correctly.  Yes, they would need email addresses to log-in and they would have to understand that in sharing a document among other students comes certain responsibilities.  Depending on what their task would be, they would need to learn how to contribute positively.

Thing 15

Is RSS becoming easier to understand? Do you recognize new benefits of using this tool? Do you remember to check your feeds regularly? Has it become a habit (or obsession!) yet?

RSS is definitely becoming easier to understand.  I just don't have as much time to sit and enjoy all of my feeds.  There are so many benefits of using this tool.  Primarily, it's just nice to have any information that I'm interested in at my fingertips.  I must admit that I haven't checked them extremely regularly since setting up this account, but I have showed it to my husband and checked it once.  I really do plan to start checking it more often.  I think I could become obsessed!

Thing 14

I think social bookmarking can definitely be useful to me as a teacher.  Teachers spend so much time on different educational websites.  We probably also visit the same websites over and over.  I know that I probably do double the work because I don't have a really useful to save these sites in order to revisit them quickly.  Delicious allows me to not only save and tag my favorite websites, but it also allows me access to other people's stacks and links.  Why do unneccesary work when you don't have to?

Delicious can enhance my productivity by saving me time and allowing me the opportunity to help myself to other people's websites.  I welcome the chance to learn about new websites related to my interests that I might not already be aware of.  I look forward to browsing through my colleagues's links!

Thing 13

I think tagging is a really useful way to organize digital resources because it allows you to save it according to more than one thought associated with the resource. If you create a folder for something, then you must remember which folder you have placed it in. You can create several tags for something, so it is easier to search for something you have saved. You might also come across something else you have saved and forgotten about, just by bringing up a tag. Another benefit of tagging is that you may have access to another person's resources and may find them by searching for a certain tag label.

When you tag something it is important to think of any concepts or words associated with the material so you can create several tags for it. Then it will be easier to locate that resource when you need it. Other people may also have access to these resources and will be able to utilize them as well.

Thing 12

Here is the widget I added. It is a little interactive monkey.  Lots of fun!  I also was able to add a Voki to my site.  At first I had some problems embedding it, but good ole Mr. Marabeas helped me out.
I loved the Voki idea and did a lot of reading about how Vokis can be used in the classroom. I think it would be great to have one as a part of a blog. Kids are not great at reading directions and just having an avatar that could read the assignment directions for kids would be helpful.  My Voki gives reminders to students to use and be aware of comprehension skills as they read.  I might have them listen to this Voki before reading a non-fiction article, which we regularly do in class.  I give them a comprehension skills sheet to fill out after reading.  This requires students to self-monitor more as they read and think deeper about the text.

I also watched a video where the students completed a writing assignment and then created a Voki avatar that would reread the writing assignment. Kids could listen to their avatar reading their writing assignment and then they could edit their writing based on how the avatar read the writing. What a great way to edit and proofread!

I am part of the Facebook on-line community. I am still not convinced that these relationships allow for the same degree of intimacy as a real conversation does. Maybe kids like these on-line communities because they are not required to reveal as much about themselves as they might be forced to in a real conversation. Facebook allows people to be silent observers if we want without having to reveal anything about ourselves at all. Facebook also allows kids to reveal thingw about themselves that they might not normally reveal face to face.

Facebook is so popular. It's not going anywhere anytime soon!

Thing 11

I enjoy commenting on other people's thoughts and I also enjoy receiving comments too. It is always nice to have our ideas validated and know that what we are saying matters to other people. Real learning takes place when we have others to communicate with and share our thoughts.

Our students will not value writing as much if no one reads it. Writers need meaningful feedback and comments do matter. I like to give students a star (complement) and a wish (helpful suggestion for improvement) when they share their writing with me. They also get very good about using this technique as well. Peer editing is proven to be a very important part of the writing process!

Thing 10

I recently read the novel, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis with my students.  When we finished reading the novel, I showed an interview on YouTube with Christopher Paul Curtis.  He talked all about his novel and it was a nice celebration to the ending of our reading.  Kids just loved the opportunity to put a face with a name and to hear what it was like to write this novel from his perspective.  Here is the video!



I was also able to download a video. This would come in handy because it saves right to my desktop for when I want to use it! Even though YouTube is not blocked in my district, it is nice to know how to do this.

Thing 9

I love to use YouTube in my classroom because I can almost always find something that relates to what I'm teaching.  If I need a hook or need to provide background knowledge on a topic I'll always go to YouTube first.  My students always appreciate a video once in a while to correspond with what we're learning.  It's so easy to find things too.  I have learned that it is important to watch the whole video carefully.  Sometimes videos aren't complete and they aren't always what you think they are! 
Luckily my school has not blocked YouTube and I hope they never choose to block this site.

Thing 8

http://bighugelabs.com/

As you can see, I've created a personalized magazine cover using a picture of myself that I uploaded through the image generator associated with Flickr.  Cheesy indeed!  It was a little time consuming to explore the different image generators and possibilities I could create.  If you've uploaded photos before then it's not too difficult.  I think my students could really have fun with their images too.  I would maybe have them create something as part of their next learning project. 

Thing 7

I think I could definitely use Flickr in the classroom.  It is always nice to have a good visual when you are introducing a new concept or if you want to provide some prior knowledge/experience for your students.  I often find myself doing searches for the same topics each year when I teach them.  My Favorites site on my laptop is just loaded with so many random things and isn't at all organized.  It would be nice to have a place for photographs and to be able to easily organize and access them when needed. 

I don't know what issues I might face, except that it would be necessary to make sure the photos are available to the public.  I wouldn't want to break any copyright laws.  I would have to make sure I carefully screen anything that I might show my students.  I would not make them public or share them unless I felt sure they were appropriate.

Thing 6

I chose this photo which is a scene from the great depression time period.  It shows children in a food line.  I chose this photo because I am currently reading the novel, Bud, Not Buddy with my students.  This story takes place during the great depression era and I found myself looking for pictures from this time period before I started the novel with my students.

 I found this photo interesting because I feel it would be amazing for my students to see what children from this time period had to go through to get a basic meal.

I just learned from a computer geek that if I had enlarged this photo and saved it when it was bigger, it wouldn't be so blurry.  Sorry about my picture quality here!

Thing 5

I don't currently have any questions about RSS feeds.  This is a new concept for me and I do enjoy being able to have one place to access information.  There is definitely a lot of information out there and I probably won't subscribe to just everything because I might not have time to read it.  It is nice to be able to search for blogs that are perfect for us.

I did find a Fountas and Pinnell blog that I subscribed to that focuses on guided reading and the teaching of reading.  It should be very useful to me and anyone who teaches guided reading.

Thing 4

I will use an RSS account both personally and professionally in my life.  As we have learned, RSS brings the information to us in a quick and concise way.  It's very easy to use and helps people access information quickly without having to do the leg work.

It's hard to keep up with everything that is new to education.  By simply subscribing to some educational blogs, we have the information at our fingertips.  I love the fact that you can simply hit a subscribe button in order to have access to most blogs so it's easy to use.  I didn't have any trouble with the other methods of subscribing either.

My cousin, Todd just moved to Germany.  He has a blog about his day to day experiences there and I hate to miss anything.  Now his experiences just get fed to me with every entry he makes.  Very cool! 

Thing 3

I already use a blog to support student learning.  I talked about it in my previous entry, but didn't know I would be referring to it in this topic as well! 

I use my current blog to support the novel that my students are reading in class.  I post questions about the novel that encourage my students to really reflect using higher level thinking skills.  The questions that I post also require students to go back into text and collect evidence to support their answer.  My 7th & 8th graders have trouble citing from text and creating a thoughtful, informative writing response.  I felt that through the use of a blog, they could first prepare their response on paper, but when they post their response they are able to view examples of other student work.  Not only are they privy to other students' thought processes, but they are able to look at how students are citing their work.  They can learn through others!

I have found that my students seem enthusiastic about blogging because it is very similar to Facebook.  One thing I have learned when giving a blogging assignment is to provide time for them to create a draft on paper before signing on to the blog.  They must prepare their response on their own first because I have found that they look at other responses and often their work may not reflect their own thinking.  They are used to posting on Facebook and are not accustomed to thinking before posting!  I have had to find ways to ensure that students are taking the assignment seriously and actually learning, which was initially a concern for me.

I have also created a really good blogging rubric if anyone is interested!  This also helps lets students know exactly what is expected from their responses and helps them to realize the importance of the blog assignment!