Leah Dewhurst’s Weblog

Tonight was a great session to hear about all the digital projects going on in our class.  The diversity of each one demonstrates our growth in the field of technology and how we can use this in our classroom. Our students / parents will greatly benefit from it.  These projects will also help promote technology in the classroom and more and more teachers may see the benefits it could have.  I know in my school, teachers are seeing the advantages and are excited when I share these new tools with them.

On another note: I just got confirmation on a virtual field trip that I will be taking my grade 2 students on.  The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller offers virtual field trips through video conferencing.    I am very excited that my students get to participate in this experience. They will get to meet a junior scientist and ask them questions about dinosaurs.  The school division is also excited that this is happening as they have been trying to find and show ways to teachers how they can use the video conferencing units in the classroom. 

Well my classroom blog is up and running.  This past week I had my students blog for the first time.  To manage the time I had them type in a word document, then I did the cut and pasting into the actual blog.  I found this to work very well.  I questioned myself on how long it would actually take them to type out one sentence, but to my surprise, they are quite the litle typers.  Even though they type with one finger, they all seem to have knowledge on where each of the letters are.  Some of my students “froze” and had no idea what to type (even though they could write a page in their journal), why others, if time allowed, would type all day long.  Right now I think I can manage the students to blog once a week.  During center time I have a list of students who will blog during that time.  It also helped this past week when it was indoor recess, as I had some blog during that time.  I also had a great discussion with my students on internet safety and why we put their names in code.  I don’t think they really realize how many people can access the blog.  I put a clustermap on our classroom blog and from that we see where people are viewing our classroom blog from. I think this map is putting it into perspective of  what kind of audience we have. 

 The parents have all been very supportive with the classroom blog.  They found it another way to keep up with what is going on in the classroom (just as I planned). I definately had some phone calls in reagrds to safety.  Once they actually took a look and realized their kids names were in code and I will never associate a picture with their name, they seemed to be ok with it. 

 Each day I look forward to updating the blog and sharing our activities that we had done.  I used photostory 3 to post my germ presentation.  My students came in the next day singing the song I had put with the pictures, so I know parents have made it a part of their nightly routine to view the blog. 

Last night I listened in on WOW 2.0 Edtech Talk.  It was a great experience, listening and chatting with teachers and admin from all over.   I felt overwhelmed as I entered the room for the first time, wondering how these sessions work,   but it was great to see others from our class and a great way to network. 

 Some of the discussion topics brought up were they same ones, as we have been talking about in our class.  How do we motivate and get teachers to use the new tools in the classroom?  What role does the administration play? 

 I believe most teachers want to know how and are eager to learn, but need to see it in action. Right now we might perceive these new tools as an “add-on”, but need to see the full benefits it could have in the classroom.  I am definitely seeing the benefit in my classroom.  The whole idea of an authentic audience has taken a new roll.  Just last night as I was attempting to add more features to my classroom blog, I had emailed the tech service for advice and they ended up commenting on my voicethread I had made with my students.  This got around and more educators that use this blog site  were emailing me and asking where they could find my “Naughty Little Doggies” story.  My students felt once again, very famous. 

Some points from the discussion that I took with me; we are not just teaching a curriculum anymore.  We need to create an atmosphere of learning/sharing and working together.  Technology is here to help make our job easier. Yes, we as teachers need time to play to see these full benefits, but I think as the word spreads we will begin to see more technology being used in the classroom.  As I take this course, I am now spreading the word in my school, and I have seen other teachers come to me to ask how I used some of these tools. 

So I have to thank Alec Couros for letting me know about this Edtalk. It was a great way to network and find out whats going on.  It was nice to see that one of the presenters was a principal from rural Saskatchewan. 

Today I spent the majority of the day setting up my classroom blog.  It has been a very exciting, overwhelming and frustrating experience so far.  Once I have figured out the layout and got all my students names entered, I was pumped and ready to go.  Then when I clicked on view my blog, everything I “thought” I did, didn’t appear.  I guess that would be the frustrating part!!!!  So I cleared my head… went back in and figured out what I had done.  My students names where in the “orphan” group… meaning they didn’t have a home.  I forgot to switch each of their names over to 2D.  Something so simple, yet complicated at the same time.  I have now added the yackpack walkie-talkie feature.  This feature allows you to leave a comment.  You just press the button, hold and talk away.  I think this feature will be great for parents or anyone to leave comments or ask questions.  I have to thank Kathy Cassidy again, for helping me with my frustrations on the blosmeister site.  I am now, once again excited about this blog. 

I plan on teaching students how to blog this week.  I know a couple of the parents are very interested in this project, so they have agreed to come and help.  This will definitely help with the classroom management aspect.  I am curious to find out how long it will take for a student to create a blog and how this experience will impact my student’s writing? 

I just received the pass code for my school and have started my classblog at the following site:

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=162321&blog_id=&listclass=20889

It’s still looking quite bare as I am trying my best to find my way around the new blogging site.  WordPress is definitely an easier tool to change things.  I am very excited to start this project and looking forward to see how my blog progresses throughout this term. 

I have finally decided on a digital project.  I will attempt to set up a class blog, where students will share their thoughts and as a class we will share some of our daily activities.  Kathy Cassidyhas been a great help in sharing her successes and helping me get set up.  I am waiting on a pass code for my school to set up a blogmeister account and I am hoping to pair my students up with students from the U of R. 

The purpose of my blog is to gain an audience for my students.  I have already seen great success in our voice thread project.  The parents have all responded with great comments and have encouraged my students to write more. 

I am still trying to figure out timing and when the blogging will occur, different tools to learn but once things are set up, all in all this will be a great learning experience for both my students and I.

Last nights session was yet again another great one listing websites and tools that could definately be added to the classroom.

One that caught my eye is called comiqs (http://comiqs.com).  I have yet to experiment with this one, but I have registered for an account and can’t wait incorporate this novel idea in my classroom.  Our school has implemented the 6 +1 Traits of Writing and I think this site would go great with the “Voice” Trait.  If anyone has used this site and could offer some helpful hints, let me know

George Seimans and Michael Welsch’s podcast was very thought provoking.  Mind you, these days I think everything is in regards to technology and the learning tools that are out there.  Their comments on how to “buy-in” educators to these new tools, were so true.  As educators we need the time to explore and “play” around with these new tools to see their benefits.  I like the idea that they presented that we should use these tools during pd opportunities.

By taking this course, I am buying in these new tools for learning.  I have started using them in the classroom, and seeing the benefits it has.  I have also had the support in learning them and know where to turn if I have a question. They were exactly right with this quote ” the affordance of a tool is not realized until its used.” I didn’t realize the possibilities of voice-thread, until I have actually  tried it.