Tonight I checked out (and really liked!) two new Web 2.0 tools. The first one was GlogsterEDU, a site where you can make your own posters and more online. My account was free and I signed up for glogsterEDU because I can upload classes and create accounts for them this year. Then they could create posters for class and they can check out each other's posters at glogster too. This site seems like it has much promise. The posters can include images, text, music, and more!
Another site I looked at was Storybird. Storybird allows students to choose illustrations and then create text in order to write a story. You can also read stories on this website. This seems like it has tons of possibilities for all levels. An elementary teaching pal and I have been talking for years about a way we can collaborate with our classes. I would love to see my students write chemistry stories with storybird and then take them to her classroom and read them (or, if we couldn't physically go to her room, they could still see them online). Maybe her students could do the same for us and we could all comment on all the stories? Like glogster, the account was free. The tutorials are great and it was simple to create a story.
Of all the tools I have learned about, I still love the 1-2 punch of jing.com and screencast.com best of all. They win out with so simple operation, awesome privacy controls, free accounts, and much potential. How many times have I heard my students say, "It made perfect sense when I saw you do it in class, but when I got home, I couldn't understand my homework?" I can use jing to create little tutorials and in 5 minutes or so, maybe they will be back on track. Of course, this is what I hope their notes will provide, but today's student is so visual in their thinking and learning, that the written word alone isn't cutting it. Plus, students who are absent will appreciate even five minutes worth of what they missed. I think my students are going to be grateful that I learned to use them!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Give a man a fish, teach a man to fish?
In order to write about what literacies students must acquire in order to be successful in the future, I spent some time at the website of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Ohio has joined the Partnership and technology skills will be woven into the instructional strategies and general skills of the new Model Curriculum. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, among other things, outlines skills students will need. One big segment of the outcomes are the Information, Media, and Technology Skills. These read very similar to the NETS-S, indicating that students will need to be comfortable using a variety of technological tools to create media, organize information, and assess the value of media, information and technology.
Certainly educators will play a major role in helping students acquire these skills. Yet, they will face many obstacles in this quest. In Ohio, school funding remains a mess, leaving school districts with the unhappy position of finding a way to do more with less. Technology costs money and given the choice between technology and teachers, I would choose teachers! However, one of the strengths of the Web 2.0 tools we have learned about is that many are free (at least in some version). Though schools may not have computer labs outfitted with all the latest gadgets, many people have access to a computer. Teachers then could post how-to videos on their websites or embed them into their blogs and students could access them and learn about the technology whenever and wherever they can. Another challenge to helping students learn about the variety of tools available to help them organize information and create media would be that educators themselves often do not know how to do this. Again many free resources exist, but often the stress barrier is so high that teachers will not endeavor to learn these skills without assistance. A wise man once told me that if something is so great, so classroom-changing that it cannot be resisted, teachers will learn how to do it because, at their core, they are learners. I think he was right on the money with this statement, but school districts need to provide time and support for teachers to learn the things that THEY know they need to learn.
The good news is that I don't think educators will need to re-think their curriculum or content in order to help students with the 21st century skills. As with all things, balance and moderation are key. Students should be exposed to a variety of presentation methods -- sometimes the chalkboard is most effective; other times a wiki will best get the job done. Teachers need to selectively use the best technology to teach whatever is on their plan for the day. Instead of looking at it as "we need to teach them to blog because they'll all have to blog someday," we must teach them to learn with whatever method is available and best because students will have to learn for the rest of their lives. Learning to learn is still the most important skill of all.
Certainly educators will play a major role in helping students acquire these skills. Yet, they will face many obstacles in this quest. In Ohio, school funding remains a mess, leaving school districts with the unhappy position of finding a way to do more with less. Technology costs money and given the choice between technology and teachers, I would choose teachers! However, one of the strengths of the Web 2.0 tools we have learned about is that many are free (at least in some version). Though schools may not have computer labs outfitted with all the latest gadgets, many people have access to a computer. Teachers then could post how-to videos on their websites or embed them into their blogs and students could access them and learn about the technology whenever and wherever they can. Another challenge to helping students learn about the variety of tools available to help them organize information and create media would be that educators themselves often do not know how to do this. Again many free resources exist, but often the stress barrier is so high that teachers will not endeavor to learn these skills without assistance. A wise man once told me that if something is so great, so classroom-changing that it cannot be resisted, teachers will learn how to do it because, at their core, they are learners. I think he was right on the money with this statement, but school districts need to provide time and support for teachers to learn the things that THEY know they need to learn.
The good news is that I don't think educators will need to re-think their curriculum or content in order to help students with the 21st century skills. As with all things, balance and moderation are key. Students should be exposed to a variety of presentation methods -- sometimes the chalkboard is most effective; other times a wiki will best get the job done. Teachers need to selectively use the best technology to teach whatever is on their plan for the day. Instead of looking at it as "we need to teach them to blog because they'll all have to blog someday," we must teach them to learn with whatever method is available and best because students will have to learn for the rest of their lives. Learning to learn is still the most important skill of all.
Mrs. Jing-a-ling Balances Equations!
Tonight I created a podcast, well, really a screencast, using jing:
2010-07-12_2044
AWESOME, right? I can't believe that I made that movie!
If you have no experience with jing.com, I'd suggest you check it out. It's free download (or you can pay for jingpro) and it allows you to capture any image on your computer screen. If you capture video, it records whatever it sees on the screen while you capture. If you narrate, as I did, it also records the sound. It was so stinking easy! Once you're finished, you can save it to your computer and also to screencast.com where you can edit, share it, and more. They have the privacy settings that I love (many levels too!) and tutorials. It's great. Love jing!
Having made this one tutorial, I might make more of them and use them to assist struggling students or to get absentees caught back up. My teaching style is very conversational, so I think my students would appreciate that I am talking and showing them the lesson on the SMART board -- just like when they are at school. Of course, my husband says that this process will make my job extinct! I hope it takes more than 16 years for that to happen! It would be even better if students created the videos using jing because then I could evaluate their understanding of chemistry topics AND use the videos (assuming they are good) to help students who are struggling. By creating the videos, students would be working on mastery of NETS-S standard #2 that states that students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media and communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. Or they might be working on standard #1 that states that students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
It was very exciting tonight to learn something so easy and that students would find to be so helpful!
2010-07-12_2044
AWESOME, right? I can't believe that I made that movie!
If you have no experience with jing.com, I'd suggest you check it out. It's free download (or you can pay for jingpro) and it allows you to capture any image on your computer screen. If you capture video, it records whatever it sees on the screen while you capture. If you narrate, as I did, it also records the sound. It was so stinking easy! Once you're finished, you can save it to your computer and also to screencast.com where you can edit, share it, and more. They have the privacy settings that I love (many levels too!) and tutorials. It's great. Love jing!
Having made this one tutorial, I might make more of them and use them to assist struggling students or to get absentees caught back up. My teaching style is very conversational, so I think my students would appreciate that I am talking and showing them the lesson on the SMART board -- just like when they are at school. Of course, my husband says that this process will make my job extinct! I hope it takes more than 16 years for that to happen! It would be even better if students created the videos using jing because then I could evaluate their understanding of chemistry topics AND use the videos (assuming they are good) to help students who are struggling. By creating the videos, students would be working on mastery of NETS-S standard #2 that states that students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media and communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. Or they might be working on standard #1 that states that students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
It was very exciting tonight to learn something so easy and that students would find to be so helpful!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Sharing Fantastic Mr. Fox
Here is a photo of Fantastic Mr. Fox that I found tonight on Flickr. Flickr allows me to upload, edit, manage, and share photos with everyone I know and everyone I don't know. Interestingly, I sent Mr. Fix to my blog through Flickr. I guess we'll see how it turns out when I finish this entry in Flickr and it shows up in my blog!
I'm giving Flickr mixed reviews. I didn't think it was totally intuitive to use. The tour was very basic and didn't provide that much information. The HELP feature is likewise not that great. I found using it to be more time consuming than if I just posed and took the pictures myself, edited them using iPhoto and shared them some other way. I'm not positive (but I'm almost positive) that I could just upload a picture from my desktop to my blog without getting involved with Flickr. Just the same, if someone wanted to share their random pictures with everyone they know and don't know, I suppose Flickr is as good a system as any.
I can think of many ways I might use photos to teach chemistry, though I am not certain I would use photo sharing to do so. I mean, why not just embed the photos I take (or download from Flickr!) into power points or Notebook software or a new photoalbum in iPhoto and show it as a slide show? Or put it on my webpage? I really liked the math teacher's lesson where he had students take or find pictures that showed math and use Flickr to add notes on the pictures about the math. That is something I could do with chemistry. Students could take a picture of something that shows chemistry and explain the chemistry in the picture using the add note feature in Flickr. By doing this, students would be working toward mastery of standard 6 that states that students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations and select and use applications effectively and productively. Students could demonstrate mastery of a chemical concept and also learn how to use Flickr. Other ways to use photosharing? Take pictures of lab groups and ask students to give feedback for what they're doing well and what they could improve on. Show students pictures of molecular models and have them name the compound, name the class of compounds, and/or identify properties of the compounds. Show pictures of chemical reactions and ask students to identify how they know a reaction took place. Ask students to submit a photo and indicate a chemical change and a physical change that could happen to the subject of the photo. Using photos to teach leads to many possibilities.
I'm giving Flickr mixed reviews. I didn't think it was totally intuitive to use. The tour was very basic and didn't provide that much information. The HELP feature is likewise not that great. I found using it to be more time consuming than if I just posed and took the pictures myself, edited them using iPhoto and shared them some other way. I'm not positive (but I'm almost positive) that I could just upload a picture from my desktop to my blog without getting involved with Flickr. Just the same, if someone wanted to share their random pictures with everyone they know and don't know, I suppose Flickr is as good a system as any.
I can think of many ways I might use photos to teach chemistry, though I am not certain I would use photo sharing to do so. I mean, why not just embed the photos I take (or download from Flickr!) into power points or Notebook software or a new photoalbum in iPhoto and show it as a slide show? Or put it on my webpage? I really liked the math teacher's lesson where he had students take or find pictures that showed math and use Flickr to add notes on the pictures about the math. That is something I could do with chemistry. Students could take a picture of something that shows chemistry and explain the chemistry in the picture using the add note feature in Flickr. By doing this, students would be working toward mastery of standard 6 that states that students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations and select and use applications effectively and productively. Students could demonstrate mastery of a chemical concept and also learn how to use Flickr. Other ways to use photosharing? Take pictures of lab groups and ask students to give feedback for what they're doing well and what they could improve on. Show students pictures of molecular models and have them name the compound, name the class of compounds, and/or identify properties of the compounds. Show pictures of chemical reactions and ask students to identify how they know a reaction took place. Ask students to submit a photo and indicate a chemical change and a physical change that could happen to the subject of the photo. Using photos to teach leads to many possibilities.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Anti-Social Bookmarking
Maybe it's the name. I just don't get this one. Alright, the handy thing is, with social bookmarking, I have access to everything I have bookmarked from any computer I want to use anywhere. And that could be handy. But I am a faithful laptop user, so I see that I get around this by carrying around my laptop and using the bookmarks I have saved to in my browser. With social bookmarking, though, I can share the bookmarks. Unfortunately, this is where I really start to bristle. I mean, I'm all for sharing if someone asks me for something. But I give my students access to my bookmarks so they can use them to find information or whatever and now they see all my bookmarks and they know too much about me. Maybe the term "social" bookmarking is putting me off. My school has a strict policy about not being social with students. Not facebooking or twittering or texting. I wonder what my administration would think about social bookmarking. I mean, what if someone had some freaky stuff bookmarked?!
OK, let's put my disbelief aside and find a way to use this in school. I could have a set a bookmarks for each topic that I teach. I could make these bookmarks available to my students for research or chemistry help or extensions or maybe even college search information. Students would then be working toward mastery of NETS-S standard 3 that states that students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information and locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
Just last week I was trolling for interesting science stuff on the Internet and I was commenting to a colleague from the southern part of my state that I had found some great stuff. She asked if I would share the websites and, of course, I agreed. If I had had my delicious account last week, I could have just directed her to my stuff there. Social bookmarking would be handy for that. I have read that diigo allows for classifying bookmarks as public or private. That site might be better for me.
OK, let's put my disbelief aside and find a way to use this in school. I could have a set a bookmarks for each topic that I teach. I could make these bookmarks available to my students for research or chemistry help or extensions or maybe even college search information. Students would then be working toward mastery of NETS-S standard 3 that states that students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information and locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
Just last week I was trolling for interesting science stuff on the Internet and I was commenting to a colleague from the southern part of my state that I had found some great stuff. She asked if I would share the websites and, of course, I agreed. If I had had my delicious account last week, I could have just directed her to my stuff there. Social bookmarking would be handy for that. I have read that diigo allows for classifying bookmarks as public or private. That site might be better for me.
Really Simple Solutions!
Tonight I set up a Google Reader account to aggregate all my RSS feeds into one home so I can go to one page to read all the latest stuff I need to know. At least that's what I think I did. I used Google Reader because Web 2.0 guru Will Richardson recommended that one in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I found Google Reader to be very easy to use. I also found it easy to browse for feeds and I have added many education, education technology, science, and fun feeds (up to the minute information on CHUCK will now be delivered to me!). One of my classmates suggested the feed I am featuring at the bottom of this blog, sciencenewsforkids. It's a really cool one! Thanks, Jan!
I think the most obvious way I would use RSS in my classroom would be to accompany my use of blogs with my students. When I think of the prospect of 120 chemistry blogs, my head swims a little. However, if I could follow them all with Google Reader, I would only see the posts that are new and I could avoid going to each and every blog to see what they're working on. I like that idea a lot! Also, I could recommend that they use Google Reader or another such service to watch each other's blogs. And their parents could do the same.
By doing this, students could be working on NETS-S standard 2 that states that students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
In other my blog news, two people voted on my content of my first post. And 5 people have voted in my poll. OK, 4 if you don't count me. But still, thanks for the support. And feel free to comment. I wish this blog had a counter!
I think the most obvious way I would use RSS in my classroom would be to accompany my use of blogs with my students. When I think of the prospect of 120 chemistry blogs, my head swims a little. However, if I could follow them all with Google Reader, I would only see the posts that are new and I could avoid going to each and every blog to see what they're working on. I like that idea a lot! Also, I could recommend that they use Google Reader or another such service to watch each other's blogs. And their parents could do the same.
By doing this, students could be working on NETS-S standard 2 that states that students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
In other my blog news, two people voted on my content of my first post. And 5 people have voted in my poll. OK, 4 if you don't count me. But still, thanks for the support. And feel free to comment. I wish this blog had a counter!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Let the Wiki Win!
At the beginning of this section of the class, I was mystified as to how I would use wikis in my class. Since the focus of chemistry isn't really writing -- at least not mostly -- it seemed like a stretch to imagine solid wiki use in my classroom. Reading about wikis changed my mind a bit. I enjoyed visiting the sites and seeing how other teachers are using them in classes. It does seem like there are many, many interesting blog options and wikis are more standard (maybe they're better when they're not free?).
As part of our assignment tonight, I added to an entry in wikipedia and I thought this was really creepy. Our teacher asked us to choose a topic we knew a lot about and change an entry. WHHHHHAAAAAAT?! Immediately, I felt I knew nothing about everything. In the end, I couldn't really bear to add a sentence. Instead, I added a link from the Ohio High School Speech League entry to the ohssl website. I liked looking at the history and seeing that I had done it!
I thought creating a wiki was relatively easy. It wasn't exactly as intuitive as creating the blog, but, overall, it wasn't difficult. My wiki can be found at http://books4brainiacs.pbworks.com/. I hope other people will contribute to this wiki! I can easily think of lots of ways that adults could use these to collaborate. Neat!
One way I am strongly considering using a wiki in my classroom is for summarizing material. I emphasize the importance of Cornell notes when I lecture and I try to convince students to leave space at the bottom of the page to write a summary of each page of notes. Of course, no one does this -- it's extra work, it's not assigned, and it's contrary to what they've done for the first 10 years of their schooling. Unfortunately, they often miss easy multiple choice questions because they haven't reviewed basic concepts from the unit. This year I think I may have a wiki summary page. Students could create the summaries as we work through units or at the end. Everyone could use them to study for tests. As a group, they would be creating a summary of the class. This would help them with NETS-S standard 2 that states that students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. Hopefully, they will also be working on standard 5 that says students advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology and exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
As part of our assignment tonight, I added to an entry in wikipedia and I thought this was really creepy. Our teacher asked us to choose a topic we knew a lot about and change an entry. WHHHHHAAAAAAT?! Immediately, I felt I knew nothing about everything. In the end, I couldn't really bear to add a sentence. Instead, I added a link from the Ohio High School Speech League entry to the ohssl website. I liked looking at the history and seeing that I had done it!
I thought creating a wiki was relatively easy. It wasn't exactly as intuitive as creating the blog, but, overall, it wasn't difficult. My wiki can be found at http://books4brainiacs.pbworks.com/. I hope other people will contribute to this wiki! I can easily think of lots of ways that adults could use these to collaborate. Neat!
One way I am strongly considering using a wiki in my classroom is for summarizing material. I emphasize the importance of Cornell notes when I lecture and I try to convince students to leave space at the bottom of the page to write a summary of each page of notes. Of course, no one does this -- it's extra work, it's not assigned, and it's contrary to what they've done for the first 10 years of their schooling. Unfortunately, they often miss easy multiple choice questions because they haven't reviewed basic concepts from the unit. This year I think I may have a wiki summary page. Students could create the summaries as we work through units or at the end. Everyone could use them to study for tests. As a group, they would be creating a summary of the class. This would help them with NETS-S standard 2 that states that students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. Hopefully, they will also be working on standard 5 that says students advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology and exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)