So far, this course, Internet Tools in the Classroom, has been one of my favorites! I feel as though I have gained so much from exploring a myriad of digital tools that I may not have explored without this course. I have learned to effectively research and evaluate tools to use with my fellow teachers and students. For example, I would have never used a Wiki Space to house all of my project components; I would have just had a mess of paperwork scattered throughout my classroom. Another tool that I may not have gotten effective use out of is Jing, or any other screencast tool. I have used screencasts for my teachers as tools for professional learning, but I had not used them for my students. Using screencasts with my students has been a great way to head towards self-paced and personalized learning.
In my opinion, the best outcome of this course has been my expansion of my Personal Learning Network (PLN). Dr. Frazier gave us a list of people to follow on Twitter, and that has made a world of difference for my PLN. I know it may sound silly, but I had no idea how powerful Twitter could be! Using Twitter as part of my PLN has catapulted me into an on-going Professional Development for which I can genuinely be excited. I have recently been inspired to start my own blog site, for which this class provides lots of inspiration. Overall, this course has refreshed my enthusiasm for technology integration into our classrooms!
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Students will compete in an Organelle Campaign. Students will have to argue that without their organelle, the cell and its organism will collapse. Students are arguing this in hopes to win the title, “The Most Important Organelle in the Universe.” Students will first compete against others on our academic team before competing with others on other teams in a grade-level competition. Students will have the opportunity to choose how they will deliver their arguments: speech or poster and pamphlet. The speech will be recorded and edited on devices of their choice, and the posters/pamphlets will be either digital or paper. However, the delivery of the content to the students is all digital. Students will refer to a “To-Do List” Padlet for their step-by-step instructions, then refer to a class wiki page to access the Choice Board, Group Assignments, Rubrics, and Tech Help Tips.
The goal of this project is to have students realize that ALL organelles are important, as the cell cannot survive without any of the organelles because they all have a very specific purpose. To achieve this goal, students will use a variety of technology to communicate and express themselves using digital media of their choice.
Symbaloo is a user-friendly tool that allows users to organize links onto one page for quick access, according to Solomon and Schrum (2014) (p. 339). Mimi, the author of 11 Ways to Use Symbaloo in the Classroom, suggests that the best uses of Symbaloo include: embed to class website to house online resources, use for curriculum mapping, create a personalized learning environment for students, and create a video playlist.
I have recently created my very first webmix using Symbaloo! My goal with this webmix is two-fold: embed to my class website to house resources and create a standard-specific video playlist. Currently, I use the OneTab Chrome extension to share video playlists because it is so quick to create. While I can share are OneTab link, I cannot embed the list to my website. The embed feature gives Symbaloo a benefit not found in other tools in my toolbox. I was able to create sections within my webmix to organize by topic, in this case, Cell Theory, Plant vs. Animal Cells, and Cell Structures. This will allow my students the choice of determining which videos they need to watch, or they can find the videos assigned based on areas of weakness. I can envision Symbaloo being used to support students with disabilities in an indirect way. Teachers could share a webmix that includes resources for support. There are webmixes with this intent already in the Symbaloo Gallery. For example, SMCISD Special Education’s webmix includes resources for autism, emotional disorders, traumatic brain injury, etc. Teachers could have immediate access to a variety of resources in one page, either by creating a webmix or visiting a webmix from the gallery. The future of Web 2.0 tools in education has the potential to tailor the web experience to the individual user, according to Kris Powers, author of What is Web 3.0 and How Might it Affect Education?. As educators, this means that the shift towards personalized learning becomes achievable. Melissa Delaney, author of What Is Web 3.0, Really, and What Does It Mean for Education?, outlines from her interviews that Web 3.0 tools will naturally lend themselves to a flipped classroom setting. This means that teachers will need to be knowledgeable in these Web 3.0 tools in order to provide students with the best chance of success after graduation. In addition, this means that a teacher’s role may become more of a facilitator than a trainer or lecturer. Instead of the teacher having all of the knowledge to deliver to the students in a one-size-fits-all setting, students will be able to explore, share, and create the knowledge through technology. It is apparent that technology is ever-changing and is leading to a more tailored experience for its users, especially as people become more proficient in their use of technology. This can positively impact education if educators can embrace these changes and keep up with them, so they can ensure a successful future for their students after graduation. I am excited to see what these advances will be! Delaney, Melissa. "What Is Web 3.0, Really, and What Does It Mean for Education?." EdTech. 26 Oct. 2012. Web. 5 Nov. 2016. http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2012/10/what-web-30-really-and-what-does-it-mean-education Mimi. "11 Ways to use Symbaloo in the Classroom." The Edublogger. 9 Apr. 2014. Web. 5 Nov. 2016. https://www.theedublogger.com/2014/04/09/11-ways-to-use-symbaloo-in-the-classroom/ Powers, Kris. "What is Web 3.0 and How Might it Affect Education? | Ed4Online." Ed4online.com. n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2016. https://ed4online.com/blog/what-web-30-and-how-might-it-affect-education Teachers must be aware of the risks that come along with their students using technology, not just in the classroom, but also in their personal lives. The first step for promoting safe, healthy, legal, and ethical uses of technology is to be aware of the dangers: invasion of student privacy, cyberbullying, sexting, plagiarism, etc. Once teachers are aware of these risks, they are able to extend this knowledge to their students. Second, teachers should be promoting healthy dialogues with their students about safety within the realm of technology, according to Sarah Muthler, author of Teacher’s Guide: Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Student Privacy. Open dialogue within the classroom is great way for students to safely explore possible scenarios they may experience. Netsmartz.org has a plethora of resources organized by age group for educators to use for these discussions. These resources include: videos, activity cards, presentations with presenter guides, safety pledges, and handouts regarding safety using technology. Another great resource to guide educators in these open classroom discussions is Christopher Pappas’s How-To Guide. Pappas guides educators through top-rated technology safety resources by providing tips for use with each resource.
These teacher-led discussions should lead to a development of strategies in which students can keep themselves safe by practicing healthy and ethical uses of technology. To encourage student participation and engagement, Muthler recommends that teachers allow students to develop their classroom’s computer-use policy. Computer-use policies should outline appropriate uses of technology within the classroom. Students, especially older students, will be able to appropriately identify acceptable online behaviors. This should be easy for students to do after their discussions or exploration of online safety resources, such as the FBI Safe Online Surfing game. Teachers can guide students in creating their classroom’s computer-use policies and have each student sign it. In addition to open classroom discussions and student-authored computer-use policies, educators should get parents informed and involved to keep our students safe, according to Robert Lucas, author of How to Keep Students Safe Online. Providing parents with tips on managing their child’s technology use will help educators achieve their goal of promoting safe, healthy, legal, and ethical uses of technology. In conclusion, educators have a great responsibility to promote safe use of technology within their student and parent population. Some strategies for educators to achieve this goal are: have open dialogue regarding risks, have students author classroom computer-use policies, and inform students and parents of ways to stay safe. Lucas, Robert. "The Teacher’s Guide to Keeping Students Safe Online - eLearning Industry." eLearning Industry. 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 Nov. 2016. https://elearningindustry.com/the-teacher-guide-to-keeping-students-safe-online Muthler, S. (2016). Teacher’s Guide: Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Student Privacy . Edudemic.com. Retrieved 5 November 2016, from http://www.edudemic.com/the-teachers-guide-to-keeping-students-safe-online/ Pappas, C. "The 5 Best Internet Safety Resources for Teachers - eLearning Industry." eLearning Industry. 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 5 Nov. 2016. https://elearningindustry.com/the-5-best-internet-safety-resources-for-teachers I have been using screen casts for several months to supplement my classroom and my coaching teachers in using technology. Typically, I use QuickTime and iMovie on my personal computer, so they are my comfort zone. However, I came across a new screen recording tool: Jing. I like the idea of Jing because of the cloud storage. Storage is an ongoing issue in my life! Overall, my initial experience with Jing was good. I think this is a great tool for those quick and basic screen casts. You can create this and share your screen cast within several minutes AND have it stored in a cloud-based space! However, a downfall is that there is no editing (that I could find) of your screen cast. Thus, I would prefer to use QuickTime and iMovie for longer tutorials with multiple layers and use Jing and Screencast.com for those quicker, less complex casts. I really like to use screencasts for my technology training with teachers. I have created a website that hosts all of my tutorials to make it easier for teachers to find support. Recently, I have been supporting teachers in creating and maintaining their web pages and supporting materials for their web pages, so that has been the focus of the majority of my tutorials. In the classroom, though, I have used screen casts to supplement new assignments or new sites that students have not used before. Typically, I only use screen casts in a self-paced lesson. For these self-paced lessons, my screencasts guide students through new tools they may be using, giving them step-by-step directions. An idea that I have for students using screencasts is to record a presentation (Slides or PowerPoint). This would allow some of our shyer students to be more comfortable during their presentation. Another benefit is to have a copy of their presentation stored. Students and teachers could keep the recording for grading purposes or to use a teaching tool. Overall, there are multiple uses for screencasts in the student world, as well as the teacher world. Below, I have added a screencast that highlights an assessment tool that I use in my classroom regularly: Google Forms: Quiz Mode.
I drive roughly an hour to and from work, and I have been looking for a new way to keep myself entertained. My answer: Podcasts! I have a few new favorites in which I have been tuned: TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network, The Dave Ramsey Show, TEDTalks Education, and Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. All of these podcasts, with the exception of The Dave Ramsey Show, are geared towards education. I love that most of these podcasts are under an hour- perfect for my commute! It is almost like getting a short and sweet piece of professional development whenever it works for YOU! The convenient part of podcasts is that YOU are in control of when you listen. While I already have a few podcasts in which I have subscribed, I am still looking forward to exploring more to follow!
Podcasts can be used as I described above, an on-your-own-time professional development, but they can also be used in the classroom more directly. Solomon and Schrum (2014) suggest that students create their own podcasts to show mastery of a skill or concept. Students can create a podcast and post online for review. This can be a great way to reach a larger audience beyond the classroom, while maintaining a distant, safe online presence. According to Hobgood and Ormsby (2016), one way in which teachers can differentiate is through the process in which they deliver the content. The video titled, “Using Technology to Differentiate by Process” describes students using an online classroom management system called, Blackboard. This is similar to a system my school uses: Google Classroom. These systems are great tools to push assignments, notes, videos, images, or anything else you can think of to your students. Students can then have access to this content anytime they are on the internet! This is a great way to differentiate to meet diverse learning needs. Teachers can survey students to discover their learning preferences to help guide them in the development of a more personalized classroom. This personalized classroom is made much easier through the use of technology. Technology not only allows teachers to deliver content in a variety of ways, but also allows students to show mastery of content in a variety of ways. Using internet in the classrooms have a great impact on the understanding of diversity by allowing teachers to break down the walls of their classrooms. Students can explore beyond their schools, beyond, their towns, beyond their states, and even beyond their countries through the use of technology! As teachers, we can take advantage of the limitless resources the internet has provided us. We can take our students on journeys with Google Tour Builder or Google Expeditions, but we can also collaborate with experts or other students worldwide through a few clicks on Twitter. Students in the school in which I teach share a common low socioeconomic status. Most of my students will not get the opportunity to explore places, people, or even ideas outside of their local community. While it is important to bring in the local culture, it is also important to allow students the opportunity to branch out and explore in a safe and productive way. Teachers have the ability to connect with other teachers and experts in order to facilitate this type of learning with tools such as Google Hangouts or projects such as Journey North. Hobgood, . "Inclusion in the 21st-century classroom: Differentiating with technology - Reaching every learner: Differentiating instruction in theory and practice." Learnnc.org. n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2016. <http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/every-learner/6776> N.a. "Using technology to differentiate by process." Learnnc.org. n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2016. <http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/19119> Solomon, G. (2014). Web 2.0 How-To for Educators. (2nd ed.). Wikis can be used for just about anything! While the possibilities are just about endless, teachers can use wikis to encourage collaboration in the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, as well as publishing student work outside the classroom (Solomon and Schrum, 2014). Some teachers use Wikis to give students any-time access to resources, while others use Wikis for publication of student work. In Code Blue, students in a sixth grade science class create webpages for their department. Each student is assigned a doctor role (ex. Orthopedic Surgeon). Students published biography pages with information linked in about their specialty. Students clearly demonstrate an understanding of body systems. I really like the way in which each group of students have a block of the hospital. However, when first going to the site, the purpose (to display student pages). The home page is a list of links to get started in research. If I were to do a similar wiki, I would create a different home page, a Hospital Home Page, if you will. Then, have a link for student resources, directions, etc. Discovery Utopias uses a really creative way to publish student work and deliver resources for a project. I really like that the teacher included real-life failed utopias for student research, but I think my absolute favorite component of this wiki is the Clean-Up Crew. What a great idea! This teacher lists a Clean-Up Crew member from each grade level for other students to contact with creating, editing, and formatting pages. She even linked contact information for students to access. This is a great way to alleviate some of the pressure for us, teachers, to be in a million places at once! One thing I might change in this Wiki is the Proposal section. There is no obvious way to edit or download the proposal. I would either embed or link in a Google Doc or Slides for students to make a copy to begin editing right away. Go West provides students with a collection of information about the Oregon Trail: its timeline, daily life, maps, weather, etc. This site is very organized, and clearly well-planned. The only thing I would change is the concept map on the home page. To me, this is not visually pleasing, but I do not think it hinders understanding; just a personal preference. Overall, this is a great resource for students to learn about the Oregon Trail! Wikis are a great way to publish student work and to provide a concentrated bank of resources. I have started a Wiki to use in my 7th grade science class during our Biomes Unit, Exploration in Ecosystems. My plan for this Wiki is to provide students with the resources they need to create a page that promotes their biome. Student pages will highlight the features of the biome (plants, animals, landscape, weather, food webs, etc.). Students will work collaboratively on their pages. I am looking forward to further developing this Wiki and testing it out with my students! Carrington, A. (2016). Designingoutcomes.com. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://designingoutcomes.com/moodle/padwheel/padwheelposter.pdf Solomon, G. (2014). Web 2.0 How-To for Educators. (2nd ed.).
Productivity tools are a great way to support the diverse learning needs of our students because of the wide variety of tools available. If you have a need, there is probably a productivity tool for you! Solomon and Schrum (2014) suggest that productivity tools have been “termed the Get Things Done (GTD) tools” (p. 94). Solomon and Schrum (2014) also convey the heavy presence Google and Google Apps have in the productivity tools market. I am an avid Google user, and I certainly see the benefit of their productivity tools for my own teacher-use, as well as student-use. My colleague and I have recently used Google Slides to create an Interactive Slides presentation for a self-paced lesson. Google Slides allowed the two of us to create this collaboratively without having to literally be together. Also, its ability to be interactive lends to a self-paced lesson. This is huge for supporting the variety of needs with which my students challenge me. The way I just described using Google Slides fits into a lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Remember/Understand) because students are simply finding information. However, teachers can allow students to use Google Slides to show mastery of a concept in a variety of ways. Students can use Slides as a delivery tool for their product (Bloom’s level “Apply”).
Another productivity tool that lends itself to a self-paced lesson is EdPuzzle. EdPuzzle is Google App that allows teachers to customize videos. Teachers search already-made videos (EdPuzzle provides videos from YouTube and other popular video sites) to edit by trimming and/or adding questions. The video will pause automatically to allow the student to answer the questions. The teacher-edited video can be accessed by a direct link or can be embedded. EdPuzzle allows teachers to start students off in the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Remember/Understand). Developing these lower levels helps to strengthen the foundation of our students’ learning. Plus, any tool that will allow for a self-paced lesson is welcome in my classes! Carrington, A. (2016). Designingoutcomes.com. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://designingoutcomes.com/moodle/padwheel/padwheelposter.pdf Solomon, G. (2014). Web 2.0 How-To for Educators. (2nd ed.). I recently explored two virtual environments suggested by Solomon and Schrum (2014): River City Project and EcoMUVE (p.178 and 181). Both virtual environments are geared towards middle grades science and seem like a great way to engage students. Solomon and Schrum convey (2014) that a benefit in adding virtual environments into our lessons encourage student-led inquiry and “exploratory thinking” (p. 177). While virtual environments are incredibly engaging, students still need the teacher-provided structure and support. Also, students still need participate in “self-reflection in order for the implementation of virtual environments, according to Solomon and Schrum (2014) (p.179). The River City Project puts students into a city that has been struck by disease. Students must hypothesize on how it will spread and how humans can negatively or positively impact the disease. To experiment and test their hypothesis, students will be led through a variety of different sources: interviews, photos, newspaper articles, etc. To implement this virtual environment, teachers must sign-up, be approved, and attend a training. My favorite virtual environment out of the two I researched is EcoMUVE. This virtual environment provides a unique experience in two ecosystems: pond and forest. There are so many components to this curriculum! There are tons of teacher resources, student resources, modules for extension or remediation, food web applications, and even post-assessments aligned to the National Science Standards. The best part is that it is free! That is right, teachers, FREE! I downloaded the game and was able to explore the forest ecosystem. This virtual environment allows students to explore the relationship between biotic and abiotic factors in one ecosystem, as well as the causal relationships of different factors. One exciting feature of this virtual environment is that students can click on an organism they find as they are exploring, and an index card full of information about the organism displays and saves in their virtual notebook. Additionally, students can time travel while analyzing the population data. They can, then, create hypothesis about the trends in the data. One of my favorite feature is the food web tool. All organisms in the ecosystem your student explores show up in a food web tool. Students can drag organisms around and connect them in ways that show the transfer of energy. If a student is unfamiliar with an organism in their list, they can click on the picture and a list of facts needed to complete the food web is displayed. For teachers to implement, they simply need to download the software and follow the steps in the guide provided. Simple as that! With structure and appropriate planning, I think that virtual environments are an out-of-the-box way to get content across to students. I have never attempted using virtual environments in my classroom, but am eager to use the EcoMUVE project! Please view the image gallery to access screenshots of my first virtual environment experience. Solomon, G. (2014). Web 2.0 How-To for Educators. (2nd ed.). http://ecolearn.gse.harvard.edu/ecoMUVE/overview.php http://rivercity.activeworlds.com/rivercityproject/index.html Social networks can be a great way to have professional development right at your fingertips! My professor asked us to get a Twitter account. Honestly, I was not thrilled; just one more thing to have to keep up with. However, I’m not admittedly a Twitter fan. Seriously, it is so easy to spend hours upon hours going through my news feed full of fancy new technology tips and tricks (Shout-out to Alice Keeler!). I think the reason I enjoyed Twitter so much more this time (I have tried a couple times previously) is that I had a very good recommendation of people to follow. That, I think is the key to using social media to its fullest advantage. Following educators who can help me grow, not only as a teacher, but who can also help me grow my network is valuable. Another social network I joined is Classroom 2.0. Solomon and Schrum suggest (2014) this as a popular site because of its forums, groups, and its archive of lessons, podcasts, and interviews. This site is interesting because your membership, while free, must be approved. So, once you sign-up, you have to wait a few days to get approval. I really like this feature because it likely filters out those sneaky little advertisements that we occasionally face in other social networks. However, I was very overwhelmed by the website in general. It is somewhat difficult to sort through the posts in the forum. As I browsed through the most recent posts in the forum, I had trouble finding something that piqued my interest until I saw one titled, “3 Useful Tech Tools to Use in Your Classroom.” This teacher wrote a whole discussion about the usefulness of Prezi. I was surprised to see that her top useful tech tool. My faith in the site began to diminish. While, I am now a Twitter-fan, I am not sure that I will frequently visit Classroom 2.0. There are a multitude of applications for Twitter in the middle grades classroom. When I taught ELA a few years ago, I would have students summarize using hashtags or I would have them edit celebrity tweets. Neither activity actually uses the technology of Twitter; the first just piggy-backs off the concept, while the second just had me printing off tweets for students to correct. More effective uses of Twitter in the classroom could include recommending students follow certain experts to help them grow a more professional following. By doing this, students could use this as a springboard for their research. While researching ways to use Twitter in the science classroom, I found a lesson that I am really excited about trying. Basically, a high school science teacher assigned an #OrganelleWar with his students. Students created a Twitter account for their organelle and started a campaign for “presidency.” While campaigning, scientists from all over the world began getting involved and adding insightful, new information for students. Now, students and experts are interacting- this allows the lesson to reach that higher level of engagement! I am ready to explore this an option for my cells unit. I’ll keep my blog, and Twitter, updated! Solomon, G. (2014). Web 2.0 How-To for Educators. (2nd ed.). https://twitter.com/ http://www.classroom20.com/ http://www.slideshare.net/BradGraba/twitter-for-nsta?next_slideshow=1 |
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July 2017
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