I started this web journey a few months ago, and while I do drop by occasionally, I have yet to commit to any one following. The week with the K-10 Online conference I have begun to more clearly…
e a smartboard which I find useful to display web based materials as well as to use it to preserve my hand written notes and markups for students. I have a website at school as well where I post many of the things I create on the smart board for review and students who miss class. I love my smart board and encourage training on all of the things it has to offer. It is a great resource in a social studies classroom.
The laptops, again can be really useful for everything from web based research, web quests, and podcasting. I also have students creat podcasts and use our lab for that as well. We will be soon using Animoto to crreate short little videos and I will be using the laptops in the classroom for that as well. No limit on what you can do!
I don't have a document camera so I can't help you with that one. I find that using the resourcres you have mentioned really makes history more meaningful. I always try to tie what we are learning to the world today, and using technology allows me to "show" them more easily how it all relates.
Good luck!
Sue P…
rself---why? What am I trying to accompish? One delicious site for links you want them to use is enough, one photo site for the crowd is enough (I use Photobucket). You spread your monitoring-self too thin and you are going to miss something that will blow up on ya!
Last spring, we used gmail for a special google docs writing project and some kids accounts were innundated with spam.
I agree with Erik, think twice about what you are tying to do and ask yourself if the tool you choose is going to make kids learn more, think harder, come to more "ah-ha" moments, and still be safe? or are you just using the tools to be using them?
I teach gifted K-6 (60 kids a week), we've done blogs, wikis, online book discussions, Animoto videos, avatars, online drawing programs, Scratch, Alice, etc etc. I know almost immediately if "it's worth it"----many things we've tried ONCE.
Whatever you decide to do make sure it fall under your district's AUP and get written permission from parents. N.…
Added by Nancy Bosch at 4:48pm on September 12, 2008
es around special ed as well as management concerns about proper use of tools and appropriate communication have made me wary of using the tools. Additionally, acceptable use policies around students using sites that require logons also slow me down.
But, I love using Web 2.0 tools for me as professional development and I find they have been absolutely invaluable. I've also managed to incorporate a few Web 2.0 projects into class.
1. I took an online class through my ISD on Web 2.0. I was curious to learn what it was and it was timed with a maternity leave. Perfect. There wasn't much else to do while recovering from surgery at home but sit at a table with my laptop.
2. My online class had us doing blogs, wikis, delicious, and a bunch of other stuff, but the first thing I did on my own was probably either Animoto, Voicethread, or Classroom 2.0.
3. The usefulness and fun of using Web 2.0 is what keeps me using it. It is self perpetuating. The more I learn from PLNs, the more I use them. The engaged my students are in Web 2.0 projects, aka, having fun with them, the more I want to use them.
Ann, thanks for asking this question. I'm really enjoying reading the answers.…
Added by Kate Fanelli at 7:47am on October 12, 2009
a number of the standards or objectives of your curriculum. We should never trade out pure fur for lack of content.
That being said, there always seems to be a way to address your standards in English using technology. I teach high schoolers, so my projects might not be up your alley. My students last year did the following: they used timetoast to create timelines for the Trojan war (example), and Moviemaker to create Romeo and Juliet rewrites (example), and created videos to display their understanding of the literary concepts they learned this year. Over the summer, they are creating movie trailers for the local libraries child selections as well. Of course, we did group writing and editing using GoogleDocs and TitanPad as well. They also completed mythology podcasts to teach one another about the various Greek gods.
Hopefully, this helps you out a little. Sounds like you have a pretty good start, though!…
interactive digital books. http://budurl.com/vtvk
Top 50 School Technology Blogs http://j.mp/ouxi7i
Check out agoogleaday.com - a great resource for teaching students how to search efficiently - plus, it's just kind of fun...
It seems that one of the important things that students need to know, but don't is how to search: http://yhoo.it/qnShGq
…
alled in all the special ed and 6th grade classrooms, but our principal did not realize they need projectors and cables to make them work. We're promised those by September.
I work with a staff that thinks teaching students to do PowerPoint presentations is integrating technology into their lessons. I had to teach two of my colleagues how to use the school's Outlook email system last year.
Our school is refoming into a collection of small teacher-directed learning communities (its astounding how we can be so forward and so backward simultaneously). I've convinced my community of six teachers (five classes) that we need to push forward, at least into the late 20th century, and really start to use technology in our teaching and learning.
I've got a nice PLN on Twitter and they've taught me a lot, then I went to NECC and learned a lot more. There is so much I want to try (Audacity, Edmodo, Animoto, Skype and more) and get my colleagues to try, but I know I have to start off slowly so as not to scare them off from the start.
So, what should I introduce them to first? I've shown them Wordle and how easy it is. What should I show them next? Please help.
Thank you.…
est that groups kids by colors? Does it involve asking students one by one to describe their summer vacation and the question, ‘if you were a car what one would you be?’
If you are already overwhelmed by my brief, yet aggressive, pop quiz, then here are some practical ideas you can implement next year from day one. If you subscribe to this list and try a few, you too, may be known as the “techie teacher” by October.
1. Obtain a Twitter account
Please, just try it before you sigh and move on to number two. I made this number one because I have been turned on to so many great teaching blogs and links to great articles. Twitter can be a very useful collaborative tool among teachers all over the world. Yes, world! I keep up with a teacher in Portugal. And it is very interesting!
Twitter allows you to follow whom you want and block those you don’t want. You can share and collaborate with fellow teachers and even set up a group that will allow your school to tweet together. Twitter does not spam and all that is required of you is a clever username and password. Set up your photo if you want and your ready to tweet away!
I find the best time to use twitter is to pick a few times during the day when you can scour your twitter feed and pick the articles you want, save them and read them later. If you try and stay current all day, you may find yourself in the weeds and overwhelmed by over-tweeting. Don’t try and keep pace, simply tweet at your own convenience.
The idea of twitter can also be used without even setting up an account. The twitter frame work - expressing yourself in 140 characters - can be used to extract main ideas and to summarize a reading. On day one have students go to the board and explain something they did this summer in 140 characters. It serves as a nice day one ice breaker and will probably draw a few laughs.
Go here for Twitter
2. Create a Google Calendar
I find that a Google calendar can be a lifesaver and a great way to integrate other calendars in your school. I personally have one calendar for my personal life, one for my school’s academic calendar, one for technology conferences and our tech coordinator has one for his availability. All these calendars can be viewed on one single page and you can turn different calendars off and on if your June begins to look like a bag of skittles fell on to the page.
The other amazing feature about Google calendar is that you can share and subscribe to other calendars. This allows you to set up calendars in your district and coordinate with each other at all times. I also set up a Google Calendar for each of my classes and embed them on our class Wiki. It is a great way to post assignments and keep parents, guidance counselors and supervisors informed.
Click here for Google Calendar
3. Create a classroom Social Network
This can be done through numerous venues. I have always had the best experience with a Wiki space. It is easy for students to understand and they can easily adapt to the process of editing and sharing on the page. You can make your Wiki space private, however, you can open it up to parents, administrators and grandma, who lives 3000 miles away, but would like to see what her grandson is doing in school.
The Wiki allows you to easily upload assignments, photos and videos. Students can participate in threaded discussion and allows teachers and students to collaborate through e-mail. I find the class wiki to be a great year-to-year resource as well. Everything my students create or that I assign is posted on the wiki. At the end of every school year I go back through and see what we accomplished and how I can make it better next year. Think of your class wiki as the lesson planner you always wanted!
Finally, the Wiki is also a great tool to house student portfolios. I covered this topic last month and find that a student portfolio wiki will allow students to track their progress from year to year and allow them to have access to it. This idea works beyond their high school years as well. They can take their wiki to college with them and continue to add and upgrade their portfolio.
Check out this post here.
Click here for wikispaces
4. Use Animoto!
If there were one tool that I am simply in love with, it would be Animoto. I have covered this site in a previous post and have used it numerous times in my own classroom. It is an application that can be used across all disciplines and will enhance your classroom flare!
I have used it to create movie trailers for all of the books my students will read during the semester. Rather than acquire a video camera and learn how to use editing software, Animoto takes care of it for you! Here is one I created for Hamlet. It took me roughly 5-10 minutes to create.
This is a great icebreaker for day one of a unit! Kids can showcase their prior knowledge and also make predictions about the upcoming literature. Another idea is to have your students create their own Animoto preview for the literature or play they just completed. Then you can showcase their films at the beginning of next year. Tell students their target audience is next year's freshman class and that they have to draw them into reading Hamlet!
Find Animoto here
5. Plan Ahead this summer!
There are lots of tools out there for teachers to use and it can be overwhelming to try them all. At the end of each year I recommend reflecting on your lessons and trying to find a new web 2.0 tools to enhance that particular lesson or unit.
One of the biggest mistakes one can make is to try all these tools out mid unit. This creates chaos and is not healthy for the classroom. If you spend more time trying to tweak the application you are using than provide the content then the point is lost. Try these steps when trying to implement new technologies into your classroom.
1. Become an expert on the application
2. Synthesize the lesson so that the application does not distract from the content
3. Plan out your time and set parameters for equipment usage so that you don’t usurp valuable class time
4. Provide a supplemental handout for students in case they do not understand the new application
As always I look forward to your feedback and would love to hear how you are planning ahead for next year. Please comment with any new ideas you are trying out or any additions to this list.
Happy Summer!…
ick the best of the books (meaning they have been read by two members that agree they are notable--sometimes that is a hard thing to do) and produce a Books of Note list. We then present it to the state conference. Since '96 we have had the list on the web.
The website is: www.tristatereviews.org
This Summer I started a blog for all the good books hoping to get them out periodically not waiting until May of each year.
The books may not all make the Notable list but they are very good. I also included some pertinent up-to-date web 2.0 info.
Url: http://tristatereviews.blogspot.com
I also have a companion site where I have started putting an the cool techniques such as flash generators and animoto.
Some of the teachers I teach are not up to speed on web 2.0 potential. http://bookpushintechie.blogspot.com
Please look at the sites. If any of you have any helpful hints or ideas I'd love to hear them.
I also have several moodle classes that I teach in children's literature, Middle school literature, science fiction literature, and fantasy literature. They are behind a firewall and passworded. If you some further information please email me at bookpushintechie@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do.
If you need an art website for art majors my own website is www.brushcolor.com I am a professional artist in my other life.…
Added by Linda McNeil at 2:52pm on January 1, 2008
cheap hand-held sound recording devices (or get the kids to use their phones) and use them to make the sound files.(You can also pre-record sound files and upload those to Voicethread.) If you want this to be online, try uploading to Slideboom which preserves animations and voice files. You may also want to use ISpring converter to get it into Flash format and then you can upload just about anywhere. There's also Animoto, but I don't think it permits a slide by slide narration.
(2) Slidecast creators: Show Beyond (http://www.showbeyond.com/docs/about); others http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/blog/index.cfm/2011/4/27/Digi...
(3) I personally love Photostory3 (older, free, dowload from MIscrosoft) as it creates a pan and scan effect so the slides have some movement and narration can be added to each slide in the series.
(4) you can convert the PPT slides to jjpg (image) files and upload to a video editing program. Upload the sound files into the audio track and sinc them to the correct slides. This is a little more technical, but it will be on your school's computer.
Finally, if you write the Voicethread forums and ask for assistance -- or write them directly -- you'll probably get the advice you need. There are a lot of educators who have this issue and they are good at helping people make their software work.…