Final Reflection

Throughout this class I have learned very valuable information that I have been able to easily integrate into my teaching. We learned about several Web2.0 tools that I found very useful. By completing the Web2.0 Tool assignment, I was easily able to learn about other tools as well. I think that the assignment on the Web2.0 tools was very valuable and a great way to share information with others. I liked the fact that we were then responsible for learning about at least three other tools. Some of the tools that I found useful in this class were:

Google Docs-

Google Docs is a great tool. After completing the in class assignment on Google Docs, I was very intrigued at what Google Docs could do. I shared how to use Google Docs with my schools RTI committee as a way to gather data on certain students and how to easily share that information with others. A colleague and I then did a demonstration on how to use Google Docs at a staff meeting for the school. I created my own wiki on Google Docs as a way to present my information and share it with others. I am happy to announce that now staff members at my school are using Google Docs as a way to track data as well as using it for surveys. I have even bought a set of teachers guides for next year that describe ways in which you can use Google Docs in the classroom. I am very excited to integrate Google Docs into my classroom next year.

Wikis-

Wiki’s are one of my favorite tools that we learned about in this class. Before this class I remember attending a conference in February in which the presenter kept referring to “wikis”. I vividly remember saying to one of my colleagues “what the heck is a wiki”? I now have the answer to that question! Not only do I have the answer to that question, I feel as though I know how to create wiki’s as well. My partner and I created our own wiki page when completing the web2.0 tool project. This helped me familiarize myself with wiki’s. Since then I have created another wiki on my own for personal use. My goal is to create a class wiki next year at the beginning of the year. I currently send home a bi-weekly newsletter. With the wiki, I will be able to update it more often and parents will have access to it from home. I plan to place information on the class wiki that pertains to class, as well as homework assignments each day.

Blogs-

Blogs are a great way for students to share information with others. I have enjoyed learning about and using blogs throughout this course. Blogs are very useful for both teachers and students. Before this class, I never thought that I as a teacher could gain anything from a blog. Throughout this class I have began to follow many blogs that relate to education. By following those blogs I have been able to gain useful information and broaden the range of my PLN. I am looking forward to starting a blog with my language arts classes at the beginning of next year. I usually have students create journals at the beginning of the year. Instead of creating journals, students are going to be creating their very own blog page. We will be using the blog throughout the year for numerous activities.

Voice Threads-

Voice Threads were one of the very firs tools that we used in this class. I have to admit I did not find voice threads as useful as some of the other tools in the class. I have however done a little more research on how voice threads are being used in the classroom. I found the following wiki that shows numerous ways in which voice threads can be used in the classroom. http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ I feel that voice threads could be useful in the classroom.

Twitter-

If I am being honest, I did not find this tool very useful. I can see its potential, especially for older students. I do not feel as I have fully bought into using Twitter in the classroom. To me Twitter was more of a social networking site, much like facebook. Before this class, I was not at all interested in using Twitter. I was a little apprehensive about creating a Twitter account. Although I do not really see its value in the classroom, I know that teachers are creative and can do almost anything with tech tools. So although I may not like to use it, I am sure there are teachers out there who are doing really neat things with it. I however prefer some of the other tools we have learned about over using Twitter. I was glad I at least was able to familiarize myself with the tool. On a side note, that was one of the major benefits to this class. I was able to familiarize myself with many tools and then decide for myself which tools I felt I could easily integrate into my lesson plans to improve my teaching.

Delicious-

The social book marking site Delicious is another tool that I find myself using very often since being introduced to it. It is a very convenient tool that allows you to access your personal bookmarks from any computer. Before using Delicious I would often book mark things at work and then not be able to access them at home, or I would write them down on a post-it. Delicious eliminates this problem because of the fact that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere. It also is unique in that you can find other people who may have similar interests as you. I found another teacher who teaches similar subjects as I do. I was able to then see what she was book marking and was interested in some of the pages that she bookmarked and added them to my Delicious account. Delicious has also helped me to become better organized with the web pages that I do book mark, because it allows you to add annotated notes after you tag the page. This helps me to remember what exactly was on that page that I liked. Delicious is a tool that I can foresee myself using in the future.

Google Earth/Maps

I have used Google Earth before in the classroom, but have never gotten a chance to take an in depth look at it. I was glad that we were able to do so through the examination of web 2.0 tools project. I definitely would like to incorporate it into my Social Studies class somehow next year. My students love to use it, even if it is just to locate their own home. I feel that this is a tool that I could use to enhance learning and capture students attention.

As I stated in many other posts I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. I feel that it has give me many new ideas that I can incorporate into my teaching in the feature. I feel as if my PLN has grown and continues to grow. I have not stopped using some of the tools that we were introduced to at the beginning of the class. I hope to continue to share what I have learned with colleagues in an effort to get them to expand or create their PLN as well. We are currently looking for a new reading curriculum at our school. I brought up the point that we should look for something that has some sort of focus on 21 Century Skills. We came across the reading/language curriculum created by Scholastic that is titled Expert 21. I was able to use my knowledge of 21^st Century Skills as we took an in depth look at the curriculum. I really favor that curriculum over many others because of the focus on 21^st Century Skills. I do not think I would have liked this curriculum as much as I did had I not had the knowledge of 21^st Century Skills. I continue to look for ways to incorporate these skills into my teaching in an effort to become a better teacher for my students.

Web 2.0 in the Classroom

I have learned so much in this class about the many Web2.0 tools that can be used in the classroom. I am continuously being amazed by the tools that I have never even heard of, but are tools that teachers are already using in the classroom. I am looking forward to integrating more technology in my classroom with the use of Web 2.0 tools. When looking for specific examples of Web2.0 tools being used in the classroom, the information was endless. I chose three websites to share with others regarding Web 2.0 tools being used in the classroom.

http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992

This site not only gives specific information on the how to’s of blogs and wikis, it has a detailed list of sites that show exactly how teachers are using them in the classroom. It also has tips for teachers.

http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/book_talks.html

This site gives specific information on teachers interested in using podcasting in the classroom. Although it does not give specific examples on podcasts done by students, I still think it is a valuable resources.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11531

This websites describes 10 ways in which podcasts have been used in the classroom.

A Delicious Reflection

Delicious is a great social book marking tool that I found very useful. I found that Delicious was very easy to use. I really liked the fact that I can now have access to my bookmarks from any computer. There were so many times in the past that I would bookmark things at home and not have access to them at home or book mark them at school and not have access to those sites at home. Using delicious has eliminated that problem. Over the course of this class my list of book marks has grown. I find myself refereeing back to delicious when I am looking for specific information. I especially like the use of the tags as a means to search for items.

Looking at Others' Links:

After visiting the tags that we saved within our class I was pleasantly surprised at how many websites I found useful for my own teaching. I ended up saving a bunch of the websites on my own list from other peoples lists. I fond and followed Misty from the class, as it seems as if we have some things in common such as poetry. I found many useful poetry sites from following her in my network.

Choosing Tags:

My list of tags that I have and continue to use has grown immensely. At first I was a little hesitant of using tags and kind of over thought the process of using tags. When adding tags I always found myself tagging and then re-tagging thinking that the first tag was not a good tag. As I got use to using delicious I came to the realization that tags do not have to be perfect. I also found myself looking at others tags in my network to get ideas of how to tag certain websites. When first tagging items I always used the tags that we were suppose to use for this class web2.0 and uwwlibmedia.

Annotations:

I like the annotations that you can add to each tag. I think this is a good feature to use if you want to specifically remember what you originally tagged each page for. There are many times when I tag a website and then can not remember what I tagged it for the. The annotations can eliminate this problem. I am getting use to using the annotations and trying not to forget to add them to a page that I bookmark.

Tag Clouds:

I have to admit that I was not very familiar with tag clouds until I found them after reading the directions for this post. It is very interesting to look at your tag cloud to see what tags were used more often. Looking at the tag clouds is a great visual representations of what you have been tagging. Some of the tags that I used often besides the ones that we needed to use for the class were: podcasting, literature, and poetry.

Connecting With Others:

Delicous is a great way to connect with others who have similar interests. It is a great way to share information with others who may be researching or interested in the same thing that you are. Delicous would be a great classroom tool for students to use when they are all researching similar topics. They would be able to see and use what others have found on the topic. I kind of think of Delicious of a way for students to Brainstorm a list of resources and put them together for everyone to use. It would also be beneficial to sort of jump start students on a project. Perhaps they were going to be researching Frogs. As a teacher you could bookmark a few pages in Delicious to get the students started and then have them add their own bookmarks. By the end of class students could easily see how the list of resources has grown. You could also visit the tag cloud and see what key words or tags students used.

As I starting using Delicous, I found a person by the name of Heather Mayernik who has very similar interests and tags. I also found a lot of useful information that I then bookmarked on my delicious page. I think that by using delicious as a resource your resources only grow and become better. Delicous is also a great tool to use if you are having trouble finding information on a certain topic. You could easily look and see what others have found on that same topic.

I love using Delicous and have continued to use it throughout the class as well as for my own personal use. It is so easy to access the things that you have bookmarked from any computer. I enjoyed using this tool and am looking forward to adding it into my classroom next year!

Trying Out New Technology!

Throughout the week I was able to visit everyones Web2.0 tool project pages in the class wiki. All of them were very interesting to learn about and I enjoyed tinkering around with the tools. Three of the tools that I tried were:

Google Earth-
I enjoyed the tour put together of Wisconsin. What a great way to get acquainted with Google Earth. Google Earth would be good for a variety of things in the classroom especially when it comes to Social Studies. It is just amazing to me that you can show students places from all over the world. It is also nice for students to see local areas of interest. A lady I teach with uses Google Earth to aid her in teaching about different landforms in her Science class. The opportunities are endless with Google Earth!

Flickr-
I thought Flickr was really easy to use. I believe that most kids would easily be able to upload pictures without any problems. I loved the idea of taking pictures of objects and having students create poems that go along with the photos that the students posted on the their wiki page. I thought the students who created the wiki page came up with a lot of uses for the classroom-especially the idea of a virtual field trip by using either Flickr or You Tube. Flickr would be so great to use with class presentations where students may want to upload pictures form home. This eliminates students bringing in pictures to class or emailing pictures as attachments. Flickr allows you to share the photos with others without having to email them back and forth. I found taht Flickr was similar to Shutterfly. I use Shutterfly quite frequently for my personal photos.

Online Polls and Surveys-
I like the idea of online polls and surveys. I thought the website survey monkey was a little tricky to navigate around. I personally would rather make a survey or poll in Google Apps using the forms. I thought that was a much clearer way to create surveys or polls. I do like the idea of incorporating polls and surveys in the classroom. I think having tools that allow students to create surveys is great. Then not only can students create the survey, but they could also graph the results or analyze them in some way. I especially like the idea of giving students a classroom survey to help critique ones own teaching. Using polls and surveys as a means to gather what students already know and what they do not know is a great way to incorporate them into the classroom.

I enjoyed using all of a the new technology tools this week and am looking forward to incorporating them into my classroom in some way!

Twitter

I am brand new to twitter and am exploring it for the first time. I have to say I have always been intrigued by it, but never really found the time to sit down and use it. It is amazing that you can be connected to so many people all over the world. The possibilities seem endless! I believe that as a teacher, twitter would be a great tool to use to connect with other teachers who may teach the same grade level or subject as you. It would also be neat to use as a tool to connect your class with a class from another country, much like the old fashion "pen pal" writing. Perhaps twitter is the 21st Century way of having a "pen pal!"

I enjoyed reading the article "Twenty-Nine Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom." At first I could not really pin point exactly how this tool could be used in a classroom, after reading that article it really gave me some interesting ideas. I really liked the idea of using a Tweet to let parents follow what you are doing in the classroom. I also liked the idea of putting a Tweet out to ask people where they are located, and then having the class use that to find information in an atlas and then connecting it to using Google Docs. I can just imagine how interested and engaged the students would be. In my reading class I usually ask my students to write a summary based on money, for example they may have to write a .25 summary. Each word in the summary is worth a penny and they can not exceed the price tag. I could easily transfer this to a tweet with the character limitation of 140. Students would have to write a summary that they could "tweet", and would not be able to go over the character limitations.

Twitter is very interesting to me! I also like the fact that you can follow influential people like the president of the United States of America, as well has famous authors, celebrities, etc.

Technology Transformed Learning Enviroments

I thought this was a very good article and provided very useful information. It inspired me to think about how I could better the learning environments of my students with technology. I have recently started to use Google docs with my team of co-workers as well as my students. I can honestly say that this tool has helped to provoke conversation with the students as well as the staff members. Students are not afraid to write things down, and seem more apt to ask questions when the spotlight is not on them, like it is when they have to raise their hand. I have began to see a high level of thinking come out from their little minds. I am looking forward to trying to transform the learning environments in my classroom with the guidance from this article in the back of my mind. I think as a teacher, this article gives you some things to work for within your classroom.

Four Things We Don't Teach, but Should

Four Things We Don’t Teach, but Should

After reading the article written by Alan November, I could not agree with him more. There are four important skills that students should learn about the technology and the internet. The four important skills are having global empathy, social and ethical responsibility, permanence of online information, and finally using critical thinking with information found online.

Students certainly need to know and feel what it is like to respect different points of view. So many times in my own teaching I find students arguing and arguing about who is “more right.” It is really hard to get them to understand that both people may be right, because of the different views they are looking at. Students are so quick to judge and can be very critical towards others. I agree with November when he said that technology can help students to better develop empathy towards others while interacting through the web.

Social and ethical responsibility on the web is huge for students to understand. It is rare to sit down and watch the evening news and not hear something about topics such as cyber bulling or sexting. Cyber bulling and sexting seem to be a growing problem throughout the country. I believe that is due to the lack of education students receive about it. It is not enough to have one guidance class that references Cyber Bulling. The education on topics such as these should not be uncommon to hear around schools. I believe that the new laws that are being passed certainly helps to bring these problems to the forefront, however more needs to be done by schools to shed even more light on these topics. We know that students are using all of these tools at home, and most certainly the students who needs the education on topics such as cyber bulling and sexting are not getting that from home. I believe that making students aware of the sad stories that happen because of Cyber Bullying and Texting can be affective for some. I also think that making students aware of the consequences of such behaviors could help as well. I think awareness is the key though. These are issues that should be brought up more than one time in a school year. Every chance that you get to refer to these important issues could stop one kid from participating. I believe it would also be beneficial to start making students aware of these situations earlier and earlier. The earlier they can begin to be educated on issues, the better off it may be.

One thing that I am looking forward to doing next year is having a speaker from a local law agency come in and speak about these types of things to our grade level.

It was interesting to read about the topic of the permanence of information that is posted online. I agree with November when he states that students are careless about what they post online. Students live in the moment. They do not take a second to think about the after affects of their actions could or will be.

I was glad to see that November listed the critical thinking about information found online. I complete a lesson with my students before introducing how to complete a research paper. In the lesson I clearly detail how things such as Google work when searching for documents. The students are always amazed that the first link that pops up doesn’t have the best information. We then go into detail about why it does not.

I enjoyed reading this article and shared it with many of my colleagues. I think it did a really nice job of highlighting important information that every student should learn.