Wikis...I love it! I have been looking for a way to create and maintain a page for my classes and to communicate with parents and students. Although my district has a website, and each teacher has a page to maintain, it does not provide the flexibility I need to maintain and update the educational links I provide for teachers, students and their families. I am going to move all my pages and page information over to my wiki. On this page I provide links that support classroom learning. I also have a page for teacher resources.
On the teacher resource page I include links to enhance learning in the classroom. I can link this WIKI to my school webpage and it will be easy for teachers to access this site.
I can't wait until school lets out and I can get to work on really building my site.
I can see people using a WIKI for professional purposes. This is a great place to maintain one's accomplishments, experience, a resume and maybe even a video about themselves. A WIKI might also be used for family communication, to post updates on reunions, etc.
Thank you Theresa for getting me started on WIKIs.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Blogs and RSS feeds
I added 5 blogs to my Google Reader account. Seth Godin's, Free Technology for Teachers and Weblogg-ed. Hartford Courant and the New York Times. I find that Seth Godin is inspiring. I've even forwarded the video and his blog to the district's superintendent. His definition of leadership is uplifting. So even if I don't use his information covertly in the classroom, I will enter each class in a positive way after reading his blog. I will pass along his views on leadership to the students so that they will know how to be good leaders.
Using an RSS feed in the upper elementary classroom can be interesting. I can see using it for current events. For example, National Geographic has "this day in history". Children would be excited to see new feeds appear on a daily basis. They can then use the information in their non-fiction writing.
Professional development would be enhanced by teaching the staff that information can come right to them. This presents an exciting new way to gain new ideas for lesson plans or even to keep abreast of innovations in pedagogy. The Free Technology for Teachers blog would improve the teacher's skills immensely. They would be able to pick and choose what is important to them. I am going to request permission to deliver PD on RSS feeds in the fall. I can't wait.
Another benefit of RSS feeds is to stay abreast of news. I'm also going to set up a feed which involves my current interest in what is going on in the Middle East (Irag, Iran, Afghanistan). I have been reading quite a bit, both fiction and non-fiction, about the subject and would like to keet up to date about books on that are on the market.
Using an RSS feed in the upper elementary classroom can be interesting. I can see using it for current events. For example, National Geographic has "this day in history". Children would be excited to see new feeds appear on a daily basis. They can then use the information in their non-fiction writing.
Professional development would be enhanced by teaching the staff that information can come right to them. This presents an exciting new way to gain new ideas for lesson plans or even to keep abreast of innovations in pedagogy. The Free Technology for Teachers blog would improve the teacher's skills immensely. They would be able to pick and choose what is important to them. I am going to request permission to deliver PD on RSS feeds in the fall. I can't wait.
Another benefit of RSS feeds is to stay abreast of news. I'm also going to set up a feed which involves my current interest in what is going on in the Middle East (Irag, Iran, Afghanistan). I have been reading quite a bit, both fiction and non-fiction, about the subject and would like to keet up to date about books on that are on the market.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Social Bookmarking and Professional Development
I try to keep the teachers, in the schools in which I teach, up to date with relevant web resources. If I come upon something interesting, I will shoot them an email with a link to the site. Actually, I just found a potentially helpful site for special ed teachers in the Free Technology for Teachers blog that I mentioned in a previous post. I shot the Sped director, inclusion specialist and the sped teachers that use a program called Boardmaker, a site that offers free boards. They all replied and were going to look into the resource. I have had teachers come to me and thank me for the sites that I refer to them. The sites are being put to good use.
So-when I discovered Diigo I thought, "this is great!" I just have to invite the teachers to join and just add the websites to a private group. They could be notified when there was a new site-and it would always be on this site. So..I invited the teachers to join and did not receive even 1 response..I was OK-did not take this personally. Most of the teachers, even the young teachers, are not that comfortable with technology.
This brought me to the idea that this would be a great application for professional development. If the teachers were introduced to social bookmarking in a non-threatening environment, I'm sure that many would buy into it. They just need to "play" with it and become comfortable.
So-when I discovered Diigo I thought, "this is great!" I just have to invite the teachers to join and just add the websites to a private group. They could be notified when there was a new site-and it would always be on this site. So..I invited the teachers to join and did not receive even 1 response..I was OK-did not take this personally. Most of the teachers, even the young teachers, are not that comfortable with technology.
This brought me to the idea that this would be a great application for professional development. If the teachers were introduced to social bookmarking in a non-threatening environment, I'm sure that many would buy into it. They just need to "play" with it and become comfortable.
Using Social Bookmarking in the Classroom
Currently I am (or at least trying to) teaching the 5th graders how to use research to create a report. The students have created an outline using the outline function in MS Word. The outline will lead them to create a 5 paragraph essay. To make it a bit more interesting, the students will be creating a PowerPoint presentation to present their report. The last slide will contain works cited. I can see the application of social bookmarking in this situation. It took some time for the students to find web sites that contained the needed information. Next year, when I repeat this lesson, I will create a closed group with the students as members. I will teach them how to use Diigo in order to bookmark relevant sites and then to share these bookmarks. I'm sure that the students will find this extremely helpful. Currently, even though I explained how to save a URL, or at least print out the first page of the URL so that they will have the correct address for the bibliography, most invariably "can't remember" where they got the information. I think that they will even have fun with this.
Social Bookmarking
I have been using Diigo all through this course. I have found it helpful in several ways. First of all, I bookmarked all the readings so that I could quickly review them at any time. Secondly, and what has been most useful to me, is the highlighting function in Diigo. I can always go back to the article and read the highlighted points without going through the whole article again. When I share bookmarked site, I can recommend that those people with whom I have shared the site, read only the highlighted passages.
I find Diigo especially helpful due to my working environment. As I've mentioned before, I work, pretty much, in a vacuum. Social bookmarking helps with collaboration, in a virtual sense. I can share information with peers by creating a group or "friend".
Diigo, and social bookmarking, has brought my approach to research to another level.
I find Diigo especially helpful due to my working environment. As I've mentioned before, I work, pretty much, in a vacuum. Social bookmarking helps with collaboration, in a virtual sense. I can share information with peers by creating a group or "friend".
Diigo, and social bookmarking, has brought my approach to research to another level.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
More educational blogs-great resource
The author of this blog (http://www.freetech4teachers.com/) is Richard Byrne. Mr. Byrne started this blog in order to provide a review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them as well as ideas for technology integration in education. The author has been blogging in this blog since November 2007. The author discusses emerging technologies and how they may be used effectively in education. This blog contains a plethora amount of information pertaining to emerging technology. I will use this blog to prepare some exciting lessons for the upcoming school year. Richard Byrne does not just review the use of technology in education; he also includes step-by-step instructions on how to use much of this technology. I have already used this blog by sharing free resources for special education teachers with some of the staff in the schools in which I teach.
Have fun with this one-the ideas are neverending.
Have fun with this one-the ideas are neverending.
Discovering Blogs
I discovered the blog, Changing High Schools on the ISTE blog site http://www.isteconnects.org/2009/03/03/moving-a-district-to-engage-in-web-20-teaching-and-learning/. The blogger was a guest blogger on the site. His actual blog can be found at http://changinghighschools.blogspot.com/. The author of this blog is New York School Superintendent Neil Rochelle. In this particular post, Rochelle, gives insight about his district’s journey to integrate Web 2.0 tools with teaching and learning. He started his blog in order to discuss the changes that will result from “exciting initiatives in an attempt to reform high schools as we know it”. Neil Rochelle has been blogging since July, 2006. He is most interested in technology and its role in education. There are major reforms that will be effecting traditional education and teachers need to catch up to the way students learn best.
This blog will assist me in the delivery of instruction. Rochelle not only speaks about the technology that is available for educators to learn and to use, but he also includes examples of how technology has been used in the classroom. For example, instead of having elementary school students write a Valentines Day card for their parents, the students created a podcast which was sent to the parents via email. I can definitely use an idea like this. Although his blog is entitled “Changing High Schools”, the blog is really about how educators can use technology to spark learning. This blog will help me to teach better and to include innovation in my teaching methods and delivery of instruction.
This blog will assist me in the delivery of instruction. Rochelle not only speaks about the technology that is available for educators to learn and to use, but he also includes examples of how technology has been used in the classroom. For example, instead of having elementary school students write a Valentines Day card for their parents, the students created a podcast which was sent to the parents via email. I can definitely use an idea like this. Although his blog is entitled “Changing High Schools”, the blog is really about how educators can use technology to spark learning. This blog will help me to teach better and to include innovation in my teaching methods and delivery of instruction.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Blog creation and Comments on Jenkins
Creating the blog was fairly intuitive and easy.
I found the Jenkins article to contain good reasons for blogging for members of the academic community. What a great way for current students to get a foot in the door for post graduate work or for the job market. It's too bad that my two sons take English as a second language (only kidding-but they both dislike the writing process-probably because their father was an English major). Maybe if blogging was available in their high schools in the same manner it is used at MIT, the writing process would have been reinforced. Jenkins does believe that not only the blogging itself, but also the demands of the blogging schedule, increased the quality of the students' writing.
Jenkins also made clear the use of blogging as a marketing tool to attract and educate prospective students into the program.
I can see how students' motivation is increased when faculty members continue the class conversation after class in a blog. This would definitely increase interest in the subject between classes. This would be great in a high school curriculum or even middle school. I know that in the high school in the district in which I teach, the technology teacher has a blog. This should be carried over to the academic subjects.
When hosting a blog, Jenkins states, "The crucial point is that running a blog is a commitment, and has to be understood as part of a larger set of professional obligations." In other words, the blogger must make a strong commitment to posting on a regular basis and to make sure that you have the time, or to make the time to continue the posts.
I found the Jenkins article to contain good reasons for blogging for members of the academic community. What a great way for current students to get a foot in the door for post graduate work or for the job market. It's too bad that my two sons take English as a second language (only kidding-but they both dislike the writing process-probably because their father was an English major). Maybe if blogging was available in their high schools in the same manner it is used at MIT, the writing process would have been reinforced. Jenkins does believe that not only the blogging itself, but also the demands of the blogging schedule, increased the quality of the students' writing.
Jenkins also made clear the use of blogging as a marketing tool to attract and educate prospective students into the program.
I can see how students' motivation is increased when faculty members continue the class conversation after class in a blog. This would definitely increase interest in the subject between classes. This would be great in a high school curriculum or even middle school. I know that in the high school in the district in which I teach, the technology teacher has a blog. This should be carried over to the academic subjects.
When hosting a blog, Jenkins states, "The crucial point is that running a blog is a commitment, and has to be understood as part of a larger set of professional obligations." In other words, the blogger must make a strong commitment to posting on a regular basis and to make sure that you have the time, or to make the time to continue the posts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)