BP16_2009104_Final Media Asset

BP15_2009103_Reflective Media Asset #2

Voice Thread

BP14_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools

http://voicethread.com/#home

VoiceThread is changing the face of collaboration tools. This site is a lot like Google Doc’s Presentation tool, but it allows real-time collaboration on a project. I liked this tool because it allows users to draw on the presentation to illustrate what they are talking about and could include text or voice comments. Presentations can also be shared and other users can visit the presentation and add their own comments. I would use this tool to help students collaborate on projects outside of school. I would also encourage collaboration with students outside of the district, or country even for more real-world experiences. This is my favorite pick for the week! Check out my commercial for this tool in the post above!

BP13_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools

http://www.postalz.com/home.jsp?user=guest

I chose Postalz because it is SIMPLE and FUN! This site allows users to create online postcards and send them via e-mail or social networking/sharing sites like Flickr. I would use this tool with students of any ages for a multitude of subjects. Students can make a postcard pretending that it’s being sent by a historical figure including details about the person. I would also use it for concept reviews, where students would write about a math process or science process. Pictures can be uploaded from your computer or off of Flickr to be used in the postcard. Another great thing to use it for would be to send thank you cards to parent volunteers and places who hosted a field trip. This site is easy to use, and would be good for computer times that are limited for a quick project idea.

BP12_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools

http://museumbox.e2bn.org/

I found Museum Box a couple of months ago and was instantly intrigued. Museum Box is a tool that allows students of all ages to create projects. This site helps projects be focused. Each project has a main topic. Within each topic, the students can choose several subtopics, which is shown as a box. For each subtopic box, the students then have 6 sides to put information in. The boxes are 3-dimensional, which increases student motivation through its fun graphics. Projects can easily be modified depending on the students’ needs. Lowering functioning students can upload pictures and audio files, while the advanced student can upload video and word processing documents to fill the sides of the boxes. I would also use this site to create portfolios of students’ work for parent-teacher conferences. The best part is that the projects can be saved within the site for easy viewing.

BP11_2009103_Response to KMalpass's Blog

The first Web 2.0 tool that is an interest to me to use in my classroom is http://www.xtranormal.com/users.php?mode=profile&uid=1081111&op=3. This is a website where you can create movies using different characters. All you have to do is choose your character, setting, voice, and then type in your text. You can create motions and expressions for your character while they are talking. I teach first graders and sometimes when you are always teaching in the front of the room it can get too routine. The students can loose interest in what you are saying and they start to tune you out. There are also times when the students are having a difficult time learning new information. You try and try again and they just can?t understand what you are trying to say. These are two examples of how great it would be if there was another way to present the information in a more fun and interactive way. Creating a video of a character that can teach just like you would only it?s visual and different. It is a great way to present information to engage the students.

Michelle Remien said...

Hi Kara,
Is XtraNormal the site that you used last month to make the introductions on your team's module? I hadn't gotten a chance to check it out until now and it's pretty neat! I agree that I would probably use it more myself to create things for the classroom if I was working with younger kids. It's a little confusing at first how the platform works. I think that older students would have fun using it though for projects. I did have a little bit of trouble getting certain characters to load, but that may have been just a fluke. The only thing that I didn't like, is that it seemed to take a long time to load and process one line of dialogue. Other than that, it is a fun, useful tool. Thanks for sharing!

OCTOBER 18, 2009 7:37AM

BP10_2009103_Flickr Lesson Plan

I needed to find a lesson plan using the Website Flickr for an assignment. At first, I had difficulty finding a unique lesson plan that caught my attention. Then, I was pleasantly surprised to find a special education lesson plan for students in high school with moderate to severe disabilities. Not only did it catch my attention because I am a special education teacher at heart, but the student target audience for the lesson is my most favorite to work with. I found this lesson at this link:

http://www.wikiteach.org/index.php/wikiteach/action/lessonplan/?WTSESSID=ab19e16469e1dc47d4ee0bccc9ca5a11&/1/iVar/245

This lesson is on the WikiTeach website, so the contents can be changed by any registered user. Each time the page is viewed, it may be a little different. So I recommend copying and pasting the contents in a Word document to save it if you like what you see.

The main topic of the lesson is Edmark Fast Food/ Restaurant sight word recognition. There are many activities described to practice the words on the page. One of the activities has students searching for pictures on Flickr using the sight words as tags, and saving them or printing them out. This requires the students to transfer the sight words from paper into the search box by typing. Identifying the words within picture titles or descriptions while scrolling through the search list provides more practice. The saved and printed pictures can be used at a later date for extra practice and review.

Another activity was designed for a community trip. The teacher gives the students a clipboard with a list of the sight words. The class would then take a trip to the grocery store or a department store and look for those words. When the students find a word, they would take a picture of it. Then, when the students come back to school, the pictures get uploaded into their Flickr account to be used for practice. The students could also take pictures of just the objects and then when the pictures are uploaded into Flickr, the students need to pick the right sight word off the list to tag each photo.

I would definitely use this with students if I had my own classroom. The great thing about this lesson plan is that it can be used for any age level or abilities with little modification. If leaving the school isn't an option, it can also be completed just walking around school grounds using different categories of sight words.

BP9_2009102_Response to Tom McNamee's Blog Post

Tom's original post:

I have been looking for a website in which my students can communicate with other students, whether that be another city, state or country. The obvious issue is safety; I needed a site that I wouldn’t have to monitor 24/7. The site epals.com fit my needs.

The site is designed with the classroom in mind. It is divided into content sections as well as having areas in which you can search for the type of connection you want to make. It is very interesting to search through the classroom descriptions and read about classrooms around the world.

I would use this site as a means to improve my students’ communications skills. By leveraging blogs and forums, I would be able to get students to really take audience into consideration. My action research project is actually on this very topic, and I will most likely use this application in some form to further my findings.

Using social networks to improve writing is crucial, especially for students whose first language is not English. One tool that the epals site uses is the ability to translate languages. Currently, the site can translate in Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean and Spanish. What’s nice is that students will also be improving their foreign language skills at the same time, so the site lends itself with cross-curriculum lessons.

Ultimately, the site’s greatest attribute is the fact that it can connect students to other students and make their voices relevant. Too often, students are mandated to simply write to the teacher and then receive limited feedback (of which is mostly negative). By allowing students the opportunity to participate in a social networking community like this it gives students validation that others support their ideas. It also gives them feedback from a source other than the teacher and is something different and fun. Whenever a lesson can be viewed as unique in students’ eyes, they will more than often, try harder because it isn’t the same old thing.

Visit epals at: http://www.epals.com/

Posted by Tom McNamee at 7:45 PM

My Response:

Michelle Remien said...

Hi Tom! Great 2.0 Tool suggestion! I liked the fact that the site had specific projects in mind to help connect classrooms instead of being a free for all blogging site. It's nice to have the site making a teacher's research time cut down to maximize the time using it. I also liked how it has feedback about other teachers and students that have already completed projects to help new teachers plan for their experience with ePals. You're right about social networks being a catalyst for practicing writing skills. There needs to be an avenue where texting grammar and spelling just won't cut it. I also think that it's fantastic that there are translators so using different languages doesn't cause a barrier in using the site. When I taught my own special education classroom a couple of years ago, I wish I knew about this site then! We would have definitely used it! Thanks again for the post!

October 11, 2009 8:01 PM

BP8_2009102_Reflective Media Asset #1

TrackStar Commercial

BP7_2009102_Web 2.0 Tools

http://assignaday.4teachers.org

This site is part of the great 4teachers.org! It allows you to create an online calendar for your classroom. I think that this tool would help teachers have better communication with their parents to keep students on track of their assignments. I also think that it would be a great tool for students with special needs to have a visual to keep track of their assignments. It's also a "green" site, because it saves paper by not having to use assignment notebooks!

BP6_2009102_Web 2.0 Tools

http://rubistar.4teachers.org

This site, also part of 4teachers.org, allows teachers to make rubrics quickly. Rubrics are great assessment tools. I would also have students create their own rubrics to get them more involved in the expectations of their projects. This gives students ownership for the entire learning process.

BP5_2009102_Web 2.0 Tools

http://trackstar.4teachers.org

This tool gives structure to online learning assignments. It is a place for teachers to bookmark websites for a specific assignment or project. This way there isn't wasted time searching for websites when students are working on computers. It is also accessible at home so students can work on assignments outside of school. It's very easy to use with a simple layout for navigation.

BP4_2009102_Social Bookmarking

Web 2.0 tools are helping the World Wide Web become a more interactive place rather than just pages of information to read. Users of the web can now perform tasks, play games and collaborate with anyone on a project. These tools are divided into four categories: social networking, CMS (content management systems), social and intelligent organization, as well as applications and services (mash-up) (Cannata, 2009). An example of a social networking site is www.Facebook.com. This site allows users to create online communities to network with other people. An example of CMS is RSS (Real Simply Syndication). CMS allows the web user to subscribe to certain sites and obtain updates from them within a third party web site. An example of social and intelligent organization is www.delicious.com. This site enables the user to keep all bookmarked sites within a third party web site for easy access. An example of applications and services (mash-up) is www.googlemaps.com. This site utilizes several types of technology to allow the user to search, locate and manipulate information to the user’s needs. This blog is going to focus more on the social and intelligent organization category of web 2.0 tools; specifically using social bookmarking in the field of education.

Forbes (2004) defines social bookmarking as “the process of creating a list of favorites or bookmarks and storing them on the Web…” (Para. 2). Social bookmarking is built on a foundation of tags. “Tagging is the assignment of a keyword or phrase to a bit of digital data” as defined by Library Technology Reports (2007). A group of tags, called taxonomies, are attached to the digital data and used to organize information on the web. Social bookmarking sites, like del.icio.us, display the organized data for the user. Forbes continues, explaining that social bookmarking, “allows [her] to effectively link the Internet to instruction” (Para. 2). There are many educational uses for social bookmarking. It has many of the same benefits for teachers, as well as the students.

Social bookmarking allows a place for teachers and students to keep all of their favorite sites in one place, and because the sites are kept on a third party Internet site rather than a computer’s hard drive, the list is available on any computer that has Internet access. This accessibility also “allows students to further investigate a topic after [the] class time has ended...[and] allows those students who take longer to process information to have extended time for completing Web-based assignments,” (Forbes, 2004). Using social bookmarking sites also presents a safer, quicker way to search the Internet. Teachers pre-select the sites students will visit based on relevance and appropriateness. This “increases [students’] time on task and decreases frustration among those who can’t read” as well as allowing “teachers to provide visual cues for students and present high-interest, meaningful reading material from the Internet” (Forbes, 2004). Another social bookmarking site is www.ikeepbookmarks.com. This site is great to use because it offers a visual option to provide pictures next to each bookmarked site to help non-readers navigate the page. The use of tagging can even become a lesson itself in the classroom. With younger children or children with disabilities, it can be a way for students to build vocabulary. “A teacher could show an image to the class, and the students could discuss possible terms to use to ‘tag’ the image,” (Buffington, 2008). There are many more ways social bookmarking could be utilized in the classroom beyond the scope of this blog.

Buffington, Melanie L. (2008). What is web 2.0 and how can it further art education. Art Education, 61(3) 36-41.

Cannata, Cosimo (2009). Folksonomy, tagging and taxonomy for effective learning: Perspectives of learning 2.0 in the XXI century. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 4(2) 26-32.

Forbes, Leighann S. (2004). Using web-based bookmarks in K-8 settings: linking the internet to instruction. Reading Teacher, 58(2), 148-153.

Library Technology Reports. (2007). 43(5). 58-61.

iGoogle ETC Page Screenshot

iGoogle AR Page Screenshot

iGoogle Home Page Screenshot

BP3_2009101_Anti-Teaching

Many teachers and school districts struggle to find the magic formula for teaching students. It’s a never ending battle over what kids need, why they need it, when they should receive it and how they should demonstrate the education that they have received. I use the term receive instead of learned, because I feel that testing does not give a full view of their learning, rather a regurgitation of the information that they’ve received in the classroom. In Anti-Teaching, written by Michael Wesch, his position is that, “…for many (students and teachers alike) education has become a relatively meaningless game of grades rather than an important and meaningful exploration of the world in which we live and co-create” (n.d).

This game of grades and struggle to find a magic formula for teaching is becoming more complex. Not only are teachers using textbooks and videos, there is now a wealth of technological advances that can be used in the classroom. Although I do not believe that textbooks and “old school” materials should be left behind, I just believe that they need to be used in a different way to teach information to students. Wesch (n.d.) continues throughout his article describing how teachers need to change from conveying information to having students find the information and for them to convey the information back to the teacher. He proposes that teachers should be more like “managers” of the classroom. He says, “The emphasis is on “managing” this environment rather than simply conveying information,” (n.d.). This gives the students more responsibility to their education and what they take from it.

When schools use technology and give the responsibility back to the students for their education, I believe they will produce well-rounded students that will be more prepared for life’s challenges. These schools should be incorporating Web 2.0 tools and Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). Web 2.0 tools are applications on the web that allow students to complete certain tasks and to collaborate with others virtually. This increases a student’s ability to collaborate with others and produce better quality, as well as more meaningful projects, to convey what they have learned. A PLE is described as, “the tools, communities, and services that constitute the individual educational platforms learners use to direct their own learning and pursue educational goals,” (Educause, 2009). In other words, a PLE takes all the web 2.0 tools and sources of information on the Web and lists them in one convenient place on the Web – a website organized by the student, for the student’s needs. These environments encourage the transformation that teachers need to make, in order to be the “managers” of the classroom that Wesch describes in his article. Educause expands on this idea by stating, “In this regard, teaching is less a matter of data transmission and more a collaborative exercise in collection, orchestration, remixing, and integration of data into knowledge building.” (2009).

I know that I would have benefited from a more individualized, self-directed learning style when I was in school – especially in high school. In this bog I’ve included a podcast that I completed in Month 2 of my graduate program, that describes my educational experiences. I know that there are other students that felt the same way I did while going through the educational system, and those feelings alone are grounds for a change in the educational process. Enjoy the video!

BP2_2009101_Google Reader

Google Reader is a web 2.0 tool that I will be using in my master’s program. For an assignment, we needed to subscribe to at least 5 RSS Feeds using Google Reader. This means that I’m “subscribing” to 5 different sites, and when their information is updated, it will be sent to my Google Reader site, where I can read them all from one spot. This saves time by not having to go to each and every page frequently to check for updates. All of my RSS feeds discuss special education, assistive technology, or technology in general. I have picked these feeds because it will help to enhance and guide my Action Research project by providing ideas and information. My Action Research Project incorporates using technology to teach students with disabilities self-help skills.

http://www.lessonplanet.com/lesson_plans/articles

Lesson Planet has information about a wide range of educational topics. It has articles, lesson plans, and worksheets for teachers.

http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/

This blog was created to give people up to date information about external and internal technologies in the computer field.

http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=%22Kessler+Kelby%22&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=au&_pageLabel=ERICSearchResult

ERIC is an education resource information center. It also provides articles about a wide range of educational topics.

http://specialed.about.com/

About.com has an educator section along with a disabilities tab that provides articles on special education topics.

http://www.brighthub.com/education/special.aspx

Bright Hub is a website with a goal to provide science and technology information to enhance people’s lives. They have a separate education division with articles and discussion boards.

Although Google Reader is very convenient by having multiple websites in one place, I will still need to make sure that I take the time to at list skim though it’s contents. Right now I have about thirty-five updates to look through. This morning, I had over one thousand. However, when I double-checked my feeds to make sure that it was giving me information about the right topics, to my surprise, two of them labeled Special Education, were not considered special education sites. Now I know to keep checking the original sites every once in awhile to make sure that I’m still subscribed to something that has valuable information for my needs.

BP1_2009101_Educational Uses for Blogs

I remember jumping on the MySpace train a few years ago. I’m often resistant to fads, which is what I thought MySpace would be, but I was eventually convinced to try out this new World Wide Web environment. As I looked around and developed my profile, I noticed a section of it was labeled “my blog.” I remember not knowing what that was at all. It took me asking a friend what it exactly was. I recently found an article entitled Educational Uses of Blogs and Wikis written by Renee Flierl and Heather Fowler. It states, “a blog (the term is a contractions of “web log”) is a form of online communication most often described as an online journal” (Flierl & Fowler, 2007).

To be honest, even getting over the MySpace phase and now entering the Facebook fad, I don’t quite feel comfortable using blogs as a personal tool. I believe that putting your most private inner thoughts in an environment for the world to see is an invitation for negative attention. However, I do see that using blogs for networking, marketing, or educational purposes is beneficial. First, blogs are beneficial for networking and marketing. For example, a friend of mine writes stories and publishes books through an online publisher. He writes blogs on Facebook, gets feedback from friends and then revises to then send to the publisher. This keeps us on the edge of our seats and entices us to buy his product, (a book). Blogs are also beneficial for educational purposes. They can be used as a reflective place about books and articles read by students. They can also be used as communication tools between classmates or students in other schools. This communication can enrich students’ research as well as their final projects by providing a wider source for information and ideas.

Flierl and Fowler (2007) provide information about useful websites that educate teachers on blogs and wikis. The two that I found the most useful on blogs were:

http://teachersteachingteachers.org

Primarily the creation of four teachers, this site is run by teachers for teachers and includes information and links to examples of skyping (Internet telephoning), webcasting, podcasting, and blogging as they are being used in classrooms by teachers. It provides an avenue for professionals at various levels of technology integration to contribute stories of success and failure in an effort to help one another.

www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs

Sponsored by the Department of Education and Training of Western Australia, this site offers teachers who wish to create blogs in their classrooms the resources and applications they will need. It also features a variety of search tools and links, along with postings by its creators on the potential uses and benefits of blogs.

Whether in the United States of America, Australia, or otherwise, the greatest thing about World Wide Web technologies is that it is global; opening the world of education to an infinite amount of possibilities.