Saturday, August 8, 2009

Thing 11.5 Evaluation

Thank you very much for the work that goes into creating wonderful computer tech learning lessons and for your feedback and support. I have discovered apps that I did not realize were readily available and so easy to use and don't believe I would have discovered them on my own. The assignments were so relevant that it almost seems reasonable that at least some of the Library 2 Play lessons should be required and reflected in lesson planning.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I particularly enjoyed Animoto and GoView

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

This program has supported and expanded my lifelong learning goals of using the internet as a tool for teaching and learning as both a teacher and as a student


3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

All applications introduced were knew learning for me, so all were unexpected outcomes

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

Although I am happy with the format and concept, completers deserve many more hours for the amount of time it takes to work through each lesson! (Of course I know that is out of your hands....)

Again, thanks.

Thing 11 Digital Citezenship

Five things I might tell my students as part of Library orientation to encourage good digital citizenship:

1 and 2 Do not be fearful; however, use caution
* This applies to both the use of the equipment as well as exploring files, folders, applications, and programs
- As instructors it is our job to teach initial, basic computer functions and rules of surfing the net and using material, applications, and programs
3 Respect for others
* Leaving the equipment in working condition
* When chatting or posting comments having an awareness of how communicating online is a very different medium (the anonymity available when using the net should be discussed)
* Email etiquette
- Ex. Do not forward emails without the senders permission (that is like placing a person on speaker phone without telling the individual)
4 Knowing the difference between material (images, text, music, etc.)that is designated as ok for sharing and what requires permission and what necessitates citing.
5 Knowing to validate material and use multiple, credible sources

If I were in the classroom I would feel obligated to address, at least quickly, the parts of the computer and basic keyboard and menu functions (although tempted, I would not want to assume any prior formal instruction). My lesson would begin with materials: The Proper Use of Technology Form (available in the Student Parent Handbook???) and the computer and possibly create a mini fun research project that addresses the 5 points of digital citizenship that I believe are important (much in the same manner that we have been doing throughout our Library 2 Play lessons).

Thing 10 Virtual Worlds

I chose to take a tour of the University of Delaware. I stayed for about an hour and was the only person there! I yelled h-e-l-l-o and looked for others, but only came across a bird here and there. Maybe because it is a Saturday in August. Somewhere along the way I lost my hair, tried to get it back, but it was a mohawk, so decided to go bald. I had difficulty making progress and seemed to walk in circles. There is a nice little art museum; however, there were not any captions so I did not know what I was looking at (there was not an under construction post, but maybe that is the case). At some point I found myself in darkness. When a fish swam past me I realized that I was under water. I tried to surf, but that is all---t-r-i-e-d!

It was fun and I can see with experience the potential value to using second life with instruction (ex. simulating experience).

Thing 9 Slideshare Update

I investigated this lesson again using authorSTREAM and Slideshare with success. I immediately visualized using either of these programs in combination with splicing in a video and possibly adding a GoView app. (if possible) for benefit of both teachers and students: teachers can create readily available online lessons and students can produce comprehensive presentations for the purpose of assessment.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Thing 9 Slideshare

Because I had just completed a ppt presentation that I had discussed with a friend that it would be great if could be shared and demonstrated using the television, I was looking forward to investigating the different programs introduced in the Slideshare lesson. Unfortunately I have spent many too many hours of frustration trying to use any them with success. I primarily concentrated on 280 Slides because it was free, referenced a couple of times in the different readings and specifically spoke about the benefit to educators. I was able to upload a previously created ppt; however, was never able to locate it to use it.

If usable, I can see the potential for a student share their ppt with greater numbers and in different locations other than where individual computers are available.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Thing 8 Screencast

As is the case with almost everything we are learning, I had fun with this. I tried several recordings using ScreenCastle, but they took much too long to upload. I had success with GoView. Although I realize that my demonstration is missing much detail, I did have success making a simple how to:
http://goview.com/?id=2d14fb77-825c-49a2-83c6-f1490f2f60f2

I took an online statistics class that would have benefited if the teacher used a version of screencasting. I can see that this would be an excellent tool to use in distance learning for demonstration purposes.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Thing 7 Video Resources

Through Hulu found a fun summer barbeque treat that is availabe for sharing:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/29796/summer-kitchen-how-to-make-a-grilled-banana-split

I am not in a clasroom so looked for videos that can be used with teachers in order to share the concept of online learning. One video that I chose came from http://www.yourteacher.com and is a simple Algebra 1 lesson. The link provides access to thousands of lessons and can be helpful to any teacher (virtual or brick and mortar). Inividuals new to teaching as well as the experienced teacher can use the lessons as resources for exploring a new or different approach to teaching a concept or for referring students to possibly provide a tutorial or benefit of extra help.



Technology in the PE class from blip.tv:


21st Century learning from TeacherTube, Bionic Teaching Shake It Up:
http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=223&title=Shake_it_Up

Thing 6 iTouch Apps

Lucky for me a former teacher who owns the $200 version of the iTouch happened to visit school last week. He loves it and enjoyed showing me all of the features that he uses including online books, GPS, camera, and calculator. The attraction seems to be that it is user friendly and has a large amount of memory.

I can see how this tool can easily be integrated into the teaching and learning experience: sending reminders and notices, creating podcasts, having students use the photog. app.to visually record and share experiences, playing curriculum related games, using the calculator, using the calendar, etc. Simply 21st century teaching and learning.

Wikipedia--another great way to extend the walls of the classroom. I heard of a fun LA lesson--have students corroborate on a writing assignment.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Thing 5 Microblogging

My experiences with Facebook and Twitter are fairly new. I first joined Twitter and did not find cause to use it. I believe that if I used my cell phone for sending posts I would have used Twitter more frequently and for sharing with my friends and family. Since working through Microblogging I have joied a few more groups. After trying Twitter, I joined Facebook and check it about daily. Both applications are set up to send me email alerts.

Creating a Facebook account for students is taking a discussion group to the next level. Teachers can post links, thoughts, or assignments and students can post videos, pictures, images, etc. in addition to their text/discussion contributions. Students (and teachers) can use Twitter and back channeling in the same manner that they use texting with their cell phones. As one of the posted articles pointed out, during lecture type opportunities the students can post spontaneous thoughts and/or find quick references.

Thing 4 Video Hosting

My daughter is taking an online college math class and was having difficulty understanding the teacher's instructions. A friend suggested that she look for help using YouTube. It was an excellent suggestion. She found a video of a teacher giving the lesson exactly as she needed.

Using YouTube to allow students to share their work can be simply another means for teaching and learning (peer tutoring and honing communication skills), inspirational to others and confidence building.

Thing 3 Like Skype

My responses are going to start sounding redundant, but once again--what a great way to expand our teaching tools. Additionally, using Skype or any other teleconferencing tool is a fabulous way to increase our available staff, for example, to team teach or access the experts and expand our students' contacts without the PR cost!

I recently heard a discussion where the word "depersonalization" was used as a negative consequence of virtual learning. I think that Sype would be an excellent tool to allay any such fears.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Thing 2; Image Generators 2

I could not choose, so tried them all (and even at that found myself getting distracted and straying off into other links, and links....I guess I got caught in a web tide and started floating away). How much fun!

Student use of Wordle—because the user can either type in text or copy and paste, Wordle can be used to look for the frequent use of vocabulary in newly assigned text, maybe predict a theme or main idea of a reading assignment, or the student can examine their own writing for redundancy of a word, and create word posters. Using Wordle, students can work either as individuals or as part of a team.

title="Wordle: For Library2Play2"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/1005830/For_Library2Play2"
alt="Wordle: For Library2Play2"
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Student use of WordSift has many helpful functions and some especially helpful to identified ESL students such as the visual Thesaurus, providing examples of different meanings to the same word, the Academic Word List (AWL), posts of images and video related to selected words, sound (ability to hear the pronunciation of a word in English and other languages--awesome), and the organization of key words according to color (green, red).

Glogster—As a student learning how to create a Glogster for myself, I needed to plan and research images as well as my pictures, links, video, and possible sound. I also needed to give thought to my font type, color, shadowing and layout. Different (different than traditional cardboard poster) thinking was obvious—that related to the video, sound, links, and images so easily available on the net, options that allow the student to present more information using less space. Using the electronic poster online allows the student to combine art and layout skills of the cardboard poster along with presentation available on the net. An added bonus is that the Glogster can be easily viewed by a larger audience.

Depending on the purpose of the poster, it is difficult for me to say that one is better or worse. Because I feel so very strongly that we should be using technology in such a more creative way in our teaching and learning, I have to make sure that I am not biased in my thought process. Ex. There is a place for hands on Art (the cardboard poster) and using that instructional delivery across the curriculum areas is also a valuable tool.

Voice Thread is an easy to use internet tool that combines visual, auditory, and text mediums and can be used by students as a presentation tool for sharing (favorites, how-to’s, greetings, announcements, etc.) sharing with the intent of gathering input, as an evaluating tool (their own work or another’s), story telling, sharing an experience, and simply being a voice (i.e. electronic portfolio). There is potential for using Voice Thread in every classroom.

Animoto—Another presentation tool--Fun, easy to use. I did like that there is a library of music and images for the student to choose from. Many options available for sharing the final product.

Voki— a talking avatar can be used to send a strong message in an email or blog relevant to the theme of the blog or mission of the email writer by putting a voice to words regarding, for ex., living green or eating healthy.

Bookr— students can easily use this tool to create a photobook instead of any other application that creates slide presentations (ex. powerpoint, virtual whiteboard, voice thread); however, the user is limited to using only those pictures/images that have been loaded into Flickr

11.5 More Things; Thing 1 The Networked Student

Thank you LRC for organizing a Library2Play2.

My personal thoughts, teacher/student; teaching/learning: I am grateful to see that we are recognizing and appreciating online and virtual instruction. The video demonstrates an example of an older (secondary/college) student in a virtual class that uses research intensive assignments, fact finding, and information sharing as the basis for teaching and learning. In a simplistic manner the video shows the viewer how the student can seek out and easily contact experts, regardless of geographic location, truly expanding learning to beyond the textbook, the walls of the classroom, or knowledge base of the assigned instructor. I love that the student is expected to demonstrate whether or not he or she has assimilated new learning, has sifted through the differences of fact vs. opinion, by way of information sharing via a social networking site; what an A+ assessment tool.

The teacher has the responsibility of giving good initial expectations for the assignment, asking the right probing questions, being available for students’ questions, and monitoring student progress and direction.

The librarian can help with online or virtual learning through their knowledge of electronic databases, online libraries, appropriate blogs, wikis or other networking and communication tools.