During the course of this semester I have heard the word "wiki" more than I can count. It was not until I took this course that I truly began to understand what a "wiki space" is. So, what is a "wiki space?" Well, the website defines it as "a space on the Web where you can share work and ideas, pictures and links, videos and media — and anything else you can think of. Wikispaces is special because we give you a visual editor and a bunch of other tools to make sharing all kinds of content as easy for students as it is for their teachers." Trust me, their not kidding. This website offers a free, did you read that? A free account for anyone to begin exploring their wiki space. This course required us to open our own wikispace account, which is totally free. It's even better since there is an Educator account that can be created by using our university e-mail accounts.Once we signed up for an account it appeared that Wikispace was a boring and blank space, but once you started to navigate around the pages you gained an idea of what you could accomplish or achieve within this space. This assignment required us to create a lesson plan. As an English teacher, I decided to use my wikispace to create a William Shakespeare Scavenger Hunt. As I began building my lesson, I realized that I could add just about anything to this page. I began adding photos, Voki's and quotes. I thought, "WOW" this is awesome. After several hours of contemplating my lesson plan direction I finally decided it was better to create my wiki pages first and then tackle my lesson plan later. Once I began building my wiki pages, I began to understand how to load videos, files and other internet prizes. I had to slow myself down or else I was going to incorporate more art, images and videos than content. This was apparently trial and error. Do wikipages offer an interesting, yet creative method to learning? I would say absolutely! When I designed my wikispaces I did it in a way that not only could my students read the instructions, but also they could listen to them. My wiki pages were designed to appeal to the tactile, auditory and visual learners. Perfect! These wikispaces aid the various learning styles of students. So, why wouldn't teachers use a wikispace? I imagine educators do not use wikispace for several reasons 1. they lack access to technology 2. they lack the knowledge about wikispaces and 3. they do not realize wikispaces can be benefical in aiding learning. I would have never used wikispaces if it were not for this course. At first, I moaned because I thought "here we go again," but once I began toying around with wikispaces I realized that the blank canvas could become a medium for some hardcore learning. As I continued to build my wikispace, I became relaxed and focused on how I was going to achieve my learning goals. Once I found ground I was able to speed through building lesson plans. It is a matter of trying that becomes the issue. If educators want to incorporate lessons that appeal to various learning styles then wikispaces hits home. Once educators get over their fears about technology and embrace it, they will realize that it is an easy tool to encourage learning. Mr.Holman, my awesome professor, uses wikis between his class and the classroom of his friend Mike. Here is an article from his website that addresses wikis http://www.teachersfortomorrow.net/1/category/wiki/1.html. Mr. Holman's philosophy is fairly simple to grasp. He believes that students should be in control of their learning and through technology students will not only control their learning, but they inject their own unique imprints on the world. This is not what he said exactly but it was my overall interpretation. I learned a lot from Mr. Holman this semester and not only did he teach us the value of trusting our students, but he trusted us enough to allow us to wonder around the internet in search of "good teaching tools" for our students. Mr. Holman is a tech buff and this interest has led him to realize that students can learn and retain information via technology, but the only barrier to this success is created by the educator. I will say that teaching Shakespeare is a difficult task for any student, but with the help and aid of a wikispace it can become a land of language and wonder for any student. My students will be able to engage in group activities that will allow them to create their own understanding of Shakespeare. These wikispaces allow students to display their own creations for the rest of the world to view (even if its local) and there is nothing stopping them from continuing to learn and create except the lack of knowledge from their teachers. I enjoyed making my own wiki pages and in order to understand how they work you have to engage, play and tinker around with it. Here is the link to my wikipage and I hope you enjoy it!!!! http://acrimonious13.wikispaces.com/ Technology moves at the speed of light and if you don't stay up to speed with technology you'll miss some very important ideas, inventions and programs. In the last few weeks, we have been discussing emerging technology and exploring the internet to find ideas for future lesson plans. We watched a few videos from Alan November that explained the future crisis of our children. The overall theme of Alan November's motivation speaking is this: Our children are living with us MUCH longer than they should and we as parents and educators should be teaching our children how to apply their technological abilities to the real world. In this clip called "Who owns learning?", Alan November explains that students are social by nature, but what happens is that they leave the classroom and they do not gather in groups. They need the gathering of others in order to understand and apply their social natures. In order to encourage students social abilities, educators need to become aware that 1.) socializing is important and 2.) socializing can be integrated into the classroom. Educators often fail at incorporating socializing skills into the curriculum. Alan November's speech reminds educators of the importance of this skill. In Alan November's "Skills Students Need to Succeed" he claims that students need three skills in order to be successful. These are: 1) students need to know how to deal with mass information, finding it and understanding it 2.) Students need to know how to work globally, they need to know how to outsource and how to work with others across the world. 3.) Students need to learn how to be self-directed and need to learn what to do without having to be told. Alan makes it vitally important that students need to learn how to discipline themselves in order to achieve maxim success in the world place. Future employers want to hire individuals that are self-directed, motivated and highly disciplined. Employers are looking to reduce cost and employees that do not require constant management are essential. This allows employers to reduce cost by not having to higher additional upper-level management staff. _Alan November's " Promethean Keynote" addresses how teachers need to pay attention to what students do with technology. In the Pew Internet research studies of 2007, it shows that 55 % of students have online profiles. They engage in social networking almost everyday. The problem is that WHAT students do with technology outside of the classroom varies from WHAT they do with technology INSIDE the classroom. It is the teacher's responsibility and obligation to observe HOW students are engaging in technology, WHY they are engaging in technology and WHAT are they engaging in. These observations can prove vitally important when incorporating technology into the curriculum. I have a course that is geared towards technology and literacy and it is apparent that students KNOW how to use technology, but how they use varies on their environment. If educators can watch, listen and learn about how these students are engaging in technology then perhaps we can incorporate these into the lesson plans. Students are what we call "multimodal," they engage in more then ONE media. Students can twitter, e-mail and text all at the same time, but for different reasons. This is why teachers should use more then ONE method of technology to education future students. These digital natives know more about technology then we believe is possible, but we have to be willing to sit back and watch what they do with it. _ COOL TOOLS One of the main issues about technology is: DO WE ALL HAVE ACCESS TO IT? In realistic terms, 100% of schools have access to technology (Pew Internet research). the only problem is that low-income, African-Americans and Latin American do not have the same opportunities to gain access. This creates a great digital divide when it comes to equality and access to technology. Some corporations are already aware of this great digital divide and they are contributing to the "closing" of this gap. Some companys such as the "one laptop per child" program are attempting to reduce this equality by supply through donations and private funds, laptops for global equality. These programs allow poor countries to expand its social, economical and political knowledge via laptops. These laptops open the door to various opportunities. These laptops will allow people to interact on a global level, which expands cultural barriers and boundaries. Our second topic was the tools that are available to further education. The first website we were directed to is the one laptop per child initiative. This program states that when children have access to this kind of tool they become engaged with their own education. Students will learn, share, create and collaborate while becoming connected to the world and a better future. COOL APPLICATIONS FOR CELLPHONES/TABLETS You have probably heard people say, "there's an app for that." They weren't kidding when they said there is an app for that! In today's technological advanced society there is over 500,00 different applications! Several interesting applications that educators might find essential for teaching is "Featured Books," which allows students to chose an appropriate book to read via cellphone or tablet. Students no longer have to worry about bringing a book to school because it will already be loaded onto their tablets and cellphones. _Another great app is "Evernote," which allows you to take notes, capture photos and create to-do-lists, record voice reminder and make notes searchable at home or on the go! Students can take notes, download and send them to their home devices. This app could benefit students by keeping them organized! _The "Foursquare" app allows you to explore the world by keeping up with friend, discover what is nearby and how to save money with online discounts and freebies from businesses. You can share experiences and locations with friends. This would students understand the saying, " A penny earned is a penny saved." This app can be applied to real life experiences. _ The "Googlemaps" app allows you to type or say where you want to go. This can help students locate places they find within text, within their neighborhood and perhaps the location of their peers. It allows them to explore outside of text, places that exist in the real world. It's a fun way to incorporate visual learning into the classroom. _ Last, but not least there is "Pulse," which is a news reading app. It takes your favorite website and transforms it into a colorful mosaic. This app will save stories for later or you can send them to "Evernote" for safe keeping. You can even twitter, e-mail or Facebook your saved stories. _ There is also the "Flipboard," which creates a personalized magazine out of everything being shared with you. Flip through Facebook newsfeeds, tweets from Twitter timeline and photos from Instagram, which was just bought by Facebook. There is "iMovie" which would allow students to shoot their own thrilling movie or story. English teachers would love this app because it allows not only knowledge but synthesis. It allows students to apply what they know. The "Keynote" app allows students to create their own presentations, which can be shared with others via iPad, iPhone or iPod. If multiple students are working on the same presentation they can share this information via iDevices. If you're looking for a few new applications that will benefit your lesson plans I highly recommend you take a look at Android or iPhone . What's up Docs? So, what is Google Docs? Other than awesome, it's a free, web-based office suite and data storage service offered through Google. Simplified: It's a place to upload and share important documents for yourself and with others. Google Docs allows you to share all your documents with others and the best part is that YOU the owner of that document has the right to decide whether or not you wish to share that information with others. During this blogging activity, my blog buddy and I shared our information via e-mail. We were both able to add, delete and alter the document via e-mail. This type of technology is priceless. Students can work in groups through Google Docs. This website not only offers Docs, but also Presentations, Spreadsheets and Forms. If you have a group working on a presentation project, each student can contribute to this presentation on their own time. During this blogging project, my blog buddy and I managed to create a Google Doc that we could contribute information back and forth to one another. This link allows one to view that document directly. You can limit access to your documents by selecting to keep the document private, open it up to certain individuals or sharing with select people.This is one tool that all educators SHOULD be using in the classrooms! This allows even the shyest of students to offer their ideals and opinions with others. Google allows individuals to save, share and contribute to the world! Did I mention that it's also FREE!!!! I highly suggest that educators FIND TIME to play around with all the wonderful GOOGLE docs offered. I know these Docs have made going through Graduate school a lot easier!!! Here are a couple links that I found interesting this week: Teachers for Tomorrow blog - Helping Students Leave a Legacy: Interview with Alan November A Day Made of Glass - Corning's Vision for the Future with Specialty Gl Google plus is the newest version to Skype. Although Skype appears to be the mainstream technology when it comes to conversing with individuals via webcam, it's Google Plus that makes this technology easier to navigate. Anyone that has a Google account can merge with Google Plus. When navigating Google plus just remember it's like having a Facebook account that allows you to chat, form groups, share documents and chat via webcam. Google has gotten so smart when it comes to advancing it's software programs. It's almost like having Wal-Mart for your computer
This is exciting! Today in class we were allowed to play around with some awesome digital tools. Some of these online tools like Voki allows students to have a voice and express their opinions through an online character. I played around with Voki and couldn't help but play around with the hair, eyes and face features. If a student doesn't want to use their own voice to express their opinions they can type the information and then select from several different voices listed. Students can chose female or male and then they can chose an accent. As an adult, I absolutely enjoyed making my own character. I have added my Voki below so one can get an idea of what a Voki character can do.
Another great digital tool was the Answergarden, which is a questionnaire that grows with each response. I attached my answergarden form down below. I attempted to answer the question several times by myself, but it stopped me after about three responses. When students answer the question, the answer begins to grow based upon their responses. Instead of using Twitter to poll students, a teacher can use this form which shows how the students favor one particular answer. Another online tool that can be used to gain the attention of students is the Cartoon Yourself website, which allows students or anyone to cartoon pictures. This site was simple and extremely easy to use. All you had to do was upload a picture, choose your cartoon and presto, a cartoon! I found a picture of myself, chose what type of cartoon I wanted to be and it generated a cartoon. This is something super simple for students to enjoy. They could take pictures of their friends, superheros, famous people and convert them all into silly little cartoons. What a wonderful tool to have in school! The best online tool yet is found at Xtranormal. This website allows you to make your own online digital movie. I had a blast playing around with this tool. As an English teacher I can imagine my students using this cool tool as a means to animate their own stories or even to use this site as a way to present a story to the class. Students could also use this site to demonstrate certain scenes in a play or book. It's interactive and engaging. It allows students to have a voice and allows them to animate, write and create their own stories. Xtranormal was one of my favorite online digital tools to use. Overall, every one of these sites are free and easy to use. The only downside is that not many educators are aware that they exist. I am thankful that my professor Mr. Holman is tech savvy! If your interested in a detailed informative websites for online education you should visit www.teachersfortomorrow.net. This website has tons of information regarding technology and the classroom. It is definitely worth the visit! In this class we're learning about inquiry-based learning, which is a project-oriented pedagogic strategy based on constructivist and socio-constructivist theories of learning. So, what does that mean? Well, Edu-wiki claims that, "inquiry learning is not about memorizing facts-it is about formulation questions and finding appropriate resolutions to questions and issues. Inquiry can be complex undertaking and it therefore requires dedicated instructional design and support to facilitate that students experience the excitement of solving a task or problem on their own. Carefully designed inquiry learning environments can assist student in the process of transforming information and data into useful knowledge." So to sum this up consider this example, you have a problem, which creates a question. This question then provokes an investigation, which leads to the creation of a response or solution. When you want to apply this just simply remember that students learn science because they are actually doing science. This learning theory appears to enhance critical thinking skills, which are vitally important for the real world. My question is: how can we create these environments when technology dominates certain classrooms? One could argue that technology can be used to increase these problem solving skills, but I have yet to see the stats on how effective it really is. Another theory we learned about was Constructivism, which is a theory of learning based on the idea that knowledge is constructed based on mental activity. As learners, we are an active agent in seeking meaning. As learners, we can reflect upon our own experiences and can construct meaning and understanding of the world in which we live. My concern about this theory is that some individuals are incapable or not equipped with the knowledge needed to construct an accurate understanding of the world in which we live in. I like the idea that the "learners" are able to adjust their mental perspectives in order to understand and accommodate any new experiences. This theory reminds me of Louis Rosenblatt's theory on "Reader Response." Rosenblatt's believed that the reader was capable of constructing their own unique and subjective meaning behind a text. In a sense these learning theories are an attempt of removing the restrictions of thought. When we allow students to become "active" agents in their learning, we empower them to become more then a body in a classroom. My only concern is: Educators already have their backs up against the wall when it comes to the "race for the top." How on earth are they going to incorporate these learning styles into a classroom forced to achieve proficiency? I am all for application of knowledge of experience, but is it really achievable? My technology professor Mr. Holman wrote a blog talking about "Learning vs. Teaching: Is there a difference we should think about?" This article pretty much sums up programming. Programming in the sense that as students we require a syllabus before we begin the start of the class, but this article address the fact of "how do I teach students if I don't know what they know?" Mr. Holman has a point. How is he to make up a syllabus if he doesn't know what we know? This appears too logical, but in high schools across the country, teachers are preparing syllabus based upon what COLLEGE has TOLD them to do. Learning should be fun and it should be interactive and I agree that the best learning occurs when it's spontaneous. I'm currently teaching a reading workshop and I have decided to give a general overview of the lesson plans. I did not stick to the required lessons plans dictated by college, but instead decided that I'm going to allow my students to show me what they know, what they need to know and to actively transform this experience for themselves. I understand flexibility and diversity and in a sense these students feel more relaxed and more comfortable in expressing themselves. Students should have say on how they learn. I am there only as a knowledge broker to ensure these students are making a wise investment in themselves.
Teaching is a full-time job. Teachers not only are responsible for content and assessments, but they are responsible for knowing what style of learning their students engage in. The most common learning style is visual. Visual learners are easy to spot because they like to read, are good spellers, doodle on paper, notice details, are organized, remember faces better than names and have trouble following verbal directions (education.com). I am a bit of a visual learner based upon these characteristics, but we all are visual learners to some degree. As an educator, it is essential to understand "what" visual learning is and "how" do we "teach" visual learners. In this week's class we learned about a few programs that help aid in visual learning. One of these programs is called "Inspiration." This software program is dedicated to aiding the visual learner. This company knows that "visual thinking is a learning style where the learner better understands and retains information when ideas, words and concepts are associated with images" (Inspiration.com). If you look below you'll notice a few mind mapping diagrams. The Inspiration program allows teachers to make creative graphic organizers, mind maps and diagrams. These visuals help aid learners in retaining information, words, concepts and ideas associated with the content. In class we were told that most school have the Inspiration Software, but some teachers do not know about it. Not only is this software cheap, but it's easy to create visuals! Another great visual aid in the teaching field is Wordle, which is a "toy for generating "word clouds"from the text you provide." Wordle is a fun way to allow visual learners to focus on the most important words of a statement, poem, sentence, quote..etc. I have used wordle several times and it is fun to play with. It's free and you can rearrange your words by color, font and layout. When you compose your wordle you have the option of saving it or sending it out onto the net. Students would love engaging in this word generating program. It allows them to creatively engage in vocabulary and comprehension. I have pasted a wordle below so you can see how it all works itself out. There are also other "word cloud" programs and at the website teachersfortomorrow, Garth presents Tagxedo. This allows anyone to transform speeches, slogans, themes and just about anything else into a stunning array of pictures. It is free and easy to use. Teachers and students can use Tagexdo's gallery to store any of their creations. It's another fun way to visually play with words. There a thousands different ways teachers can incorporate visual aids into their teaching. I currently took a workshop on SMART boards, which I might add are awesome! These SMART boards are an interactive tool that allows students to not only visually engage in learning, but to actively engage in learning. Any professionaly using SMART boards can visit this site and upload new lessons, find solutions and tech support. One of the biggest issues I've heard about SMART boards is that teachers do not know where they can find lesson templates. This site is helpful, but what I learned was that in order to understand a SMART board you have to touch, click it and play around with it. It's like any other software program, in that it requires you to explore the tool bar and all the little gadgets that it comes equipped with. Technology is a wonderful tool that will help teachers prepare students for a digital world. Technology will also aid the world of visual consumers. I am excited about these new technologies and I cannot wait to incorporate some of these new program ideas into my classroom. I believe my students will love learning so much that they will actually come to school! Ohio Technology Standards have been implemented in order to provide a resourceful and safe experience for technology integration into the classroom. These standards coincide with ISTEs (International Society of Technology in Education) standards of technology use. One of the greatest hurdles educators might face in this great state is the lack of accessibility or access to technology. These standards are set in place to help aid educators and administrators in implementing technology strategies, which will enhance the student's creative and critical thinking abilities. In today's world, technology dominates our social communication skills and in order to understand the importance of these changes it is important that educators, students and administrators collaborate and integrate these new literacies in today's curriculum with the hopes that it will provide future skills for future generations. In order for students and teachers to feel safe in today's technologically advanced society they have to be aware of the potential dangers of excess internet usage. There are rules to internet usage and some of these can be found by searching for the "fair use" guidelines to the internet. These guidelines are implemented as a means to protect the copyrights of certain material. As an educator, students should be aware of these "fair use" rules in order to prevent them from violating copyright laws. Teachers are also accountable for maintaining and understanding these copyright laws as they will affect how material is viewed and distributed throughout their teaching careers. Some of the most standard rules are that 10% of a text or 1000 words or less can be distributed at a time. Teachers can use poems if then 250 words, but no more than 5 poems from 5 different poets. These are pretty detailed rules, but most often teachers violate these copyright laws without even knowing it. This is because teachers need to become aware that these do exist and it requires research on their part. It also part of the teachers responsibility to help students understand SAFE internet usage. There are sites like i-SAFE that provide detailed guidelines to safe internet surfing. In order to prevent students from entering dangerous websites or even encountering some dangerous information via the net, teachers should provide safe internet usage tips for their students. This website offers a simple, easy method of implementing the importance of internet research with the hopes of reducing any danger the student may encounter. The teachers for tomorrow link offers insight to professional responsibility towards implementing technology and change. It is the responsibility of educators to acknowledge that technology is here and how we, as a team of professions should collaborate ideas in order to enhance the learning experience for all in an every-changing world. Technology is here whether or not I agree with it, but in my chosen profession I have devoted myself to enhancing the creative and critical thinking skills of my students. Technology is a tool and with this tool I will be able to gain acceptance and understanding in a high paced world. Google Docs is wonderful for storing any important information. It allows users to share documents, view presentations and anything that requires corresponding. My university uses Google Docs and any information teachers or students need to share is all there for the taking. Google docs is like a massive Microsoft office, but the twist is that it allows you to store and retain any important information you wish to keep. As you can see located below this blog there are a few examples of presentations and test formats. Google Doc allows you to formulate quizzes and tests and for teachers this is fast and easy. Students can access this blog, take their test and their answers are automatically sent to your Google Docs account. If you're looking to simplify your life than Google Docs is your kind of program. It's simple, easy and free and it does not get any better than that. This link will provide some insight on what different formats a teacher or student can use through Google Docs, It also provides a tour of the Google Geography program that most teachers find beneficial in their classrooms. It is definitely worth a look! http://www.teachersfortomorrow.net/1/category/google/1.html Today in our Technology course we were introduced to Twitter and let me tell you, text messaging has nothing on Twitter ! Twitter sends information at lightning fast speeds. In our Technology course, we attempted to communicate via tweets with other University students. Unfortunately, due to the large amount of participating students it made the experience rather frustrating. The mass amounts of tweets that bombarded our screens only added to our frustrations. As our eyes attempted to focus on the screen, it was our minds that eventually gave up the idea of making sense of the whole ordeal. This was my first attempt at tweeting. At one point I told myself that I would never succumb to tweeting, but leave it up to college to force me to take a technology course. I'm not implying that Twitter is a horrible program, I'm just saying this first time experience made it rather difficult to gain a clear understanding of the program. After much frustration and a little heavy breathing, the teacher managed to explain several of the key components of Twitter. Twitter has something called a Tweet Deck . This Tweet Deck allows you to view multiple tweets based upon interest. For example, if you subscribe to passiondriventeachers you'll engage in conversations with other passion driven teachers. On a personal level, this type of medium allows like minded individuals to collaborate and share ideas. Apparently, educators find this to be a helpful tool in their classrooms. Students can tweet their answers or even engage in conversations about certain topics.If your an Educator looking to enhance your students learning then this article provided by TeachersforTomorrow will offer some valuable insight http://www.teachersfortomorrow.net/1/category/twitter/1.html. Although my first experience on Twitter was mind boggling it will not prevent me from tinkering around the program. I imagine that my students will become avid tweeters and in order to understand them I'll have to embrace this new technology. I found an interesting website that offers valuable advice on how to navigate the many options of twitter. This link :http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ will help clarify any questions one might have about Twitter. Have you heard about Diigo? If not, then your missing out! Diigo is a social bookmarking website that allows you to bookmark web pages, highlight reading content and attach sticky notes. If you fear that you might lose your content due to computer crashing or deleting of material then Diigo is your saving grace! In this course we were required to sign-up for a Diigo account. It was simple, easy and free of charge. After awhile, you get use to navigating diigo within your favorites toolbar. It's easy to highlight your favorite passages using green,blue, pink or yellow. If you fear that YouTube will delete any of your favorite videos, never fear Diigo is here! You can save and bookmark any pictures/videos to Diigo and your content is safe-guarded for life! Diigo is an acronym which means "Digest of Internet Information" and boy Diigo isn't kidding. This social bookmarking website can hold a bucket load of information. The best part is that educators can upgrade to "premium" accounts through an educational application form. Diigo wants to promote its service and education is a great start. I am currently playing around with the many features of Diigo in hopes of better managing my links and photos. Anyone who is an avid internet browser should definitely take an interest in uploading this wonderfully valuable social bookmarking website . As an English teacher I believe my students will definitely benefit from using diigo. They will be able to store and save any potential research information for future use. The Teachers for tomorrow website offers a few visual examples of some of the most exciting components of diigo.If, you're interested in seeing these visual examples just click on the link located below: http://www.teachersfortomorrow.net/1/category/diigo/1.html |
AuthorMy name is Crystal and I currently reside in Ohio. I have a Bachelor's in Psychology. I am a Graduate student at the University of Akron in the Master's of Integrated Language Arts. Archives
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