Online PD March 20, 2010

I attended  the Classroom 2.0 Live: Engaging Students with Interactive Technology with special guest: Adora Svitak. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience as it was interactive, I had a chance to network with teachers globally and learned many new and interesting Web 2.0 tools that are available.

Elluminate was used to broadcast the session. At the beginning a poll of questions was taken in which all participants answered.  This was a unique way as we had a chance to see what other people were at in the use of web 2.0 tools.  I found the conversation in the chat room very useful as it answered questions along the way and it provided the web links to the tools they were explaining.  I did find it hard to keep track in the chat room as well as listen to the presentation all at the same time.  I guess I meed to work on my multi-tasking skills.  Couls or should this be a skill we need to teach our students? 

 Adora Svitak is an adorable, humorous and passionate teacher who is only 12 years old. I was absolutely astounded when they showed the youtube opening about Adora.  After listening to her speak you would have never known she was only 12 years old.  She has been a teacher for the last 6 years and loves to teach writer’s workshop.  She presents many video conferences to students all over the world.  If you have not met her, makes sure you check out her website and video.    During the presentation she shared advice for many different topics in regards to interactive technology.  She would love for teachers to continue teaching “best practices” in the classroom as students of the 21^st century like the control over their learning experiences. 

I enjoyed the set up of the presentation.  She went through a list of challenges schools are trying to meet and technology tools that will help with those challenges. Adora also provided examples how to integrate them in the classroom as well.

1. Visual Thinkers:

-          Imagine a room that texts have sound and video

*Tools to use: Glogster and Prezi

-          Big blocks of text can be intimidating and not very understandable for many students

• Tool to use: Wordle

1. Responsive students not wanting to ask questions:

• Tools to use: Fruit machine ( random name picker)
  • Classtools.net
• SMARTboard: students love to learn in an interactive world; using the SMARTboard students get involved with learning

1. Beyond the Walls of the Classroom:

• Tools to use: video conference (CILC.org
  • To provide visual learning and connections with experts around the world.

I have had wonderful experiences with video conferences. The first one I did was from the Royal Tyrell Museum.  A Palaeontologist showed us parts of the museum and explained about the different dinosaurs. The students got to ask any questions they would like.

 My second experience was an author study. My students met up with Laurie Keller the author of “Do Unto Otters as Otters Would Do to You.” Another great experience where students go to ask questions and discuss how to get ideas for writing.

1. Thinking in Letters
   1. Students may not be motivated to read with intent or write well

• Tools to use: Blog
  • To showcase what they have learned, and learning to build an online presence

1. Groups are having difficulty working together

• Tools to use: Wikis
• Lee Lefever provides many examples on how to understand wikis.

 http://www.commoncraft.com/store-item/video-wikis-plain-english

1. Projects Getting Lost

• Tools to use: Zoho, scrib doc. Slideshare

1. Connecting with Students
   1. How to get all to interact with one another

                                                              i.      Tools to use: Twitter & Edmoto (send out short announcements, and links)

1. Testing Students
   1. Tools to use: Quizzes: Quia, Proprofs, Quizlets

There were many other tools that were described but I felt these to be noteworthy. I thought this went very well with our class EC&I 832 as we are learning to use different tools in the classroom as we dig through our sandbox.  I wish I had watched this presentation during block 5 as this would have been very useful. 

I found this presentation extremely helpful and some tools could be implemented right away. The next day I was having a Spelling test, so I quickly put all the students’ names in the random name picker (fruit machine) and that was how the partners were chosen.  

I would definitely show this presentation for teachers who want to step foot and are beginning to use the tools in the classroom.  This gives them many different tools to try and shows them how each tools works.  Of course having a 12 year old teacher sharing this information with teachers is inspiring all on its own. I am still in awe over the presentation. I never realized the potential of online learning until I heard this presentation.  I got more out of this presentation than I did spending a whole day at a PD conference.  I also like the fact that if I missed something I could always go back and listen when it was finished as it was recorded.  Classroom 2.0 Live seems to be putting on presentations on a weekly basis and I am looking forward to participate in more of the presentations.  In the end I like Adora commented that we need to “keep learning and teaching yourself and be open to having your students teaching you.  Which makes you realize that community is the best Web 2.0 tool of all.”

What Web 2.0 Tools Can Do For Us March 16, 2010

The FischBowl article, “Sometimes This Stuff Amazes Me,” resonated with me because I am still amazed at the abundance of tools that are at our disposal.  When I needed to collect data for projects, it was paper surveys, handed out and tabulated by hand. Not only did you have to wait many days for the surveys to be answered, you didn’t have the numbers that you could possibly have nowadays.  Just like the example in the article, his daughter needed to collect data for a math project. He tweeted out to his community and on his blog for help and instantly got responses.  This world is different now days, which was a strong message in his article. I think we need to use these tools to their full advantage and utilize them in meaningful ways.  I also believe as educators we need to be in the know (what tools are available) and kept up to date with the tools and how it can be used effectively in the classroom.  I agree with Karl’s statement, “What can we do now (that is relevant and meaningful for students) that we couldn’t do before?” needs to be in the forefront of our teaching.  EC&I 832 was and is a class that has definitely helped me see the  potential technology has on learning in the classroom.  The final project is a showcase of how technology can be used in many different settings.  My Inuit project could have been the same as it was always done before; however after having a chance to play in the sandbox, I know my Inuit project is more than just a project, it is a project that has been redesigned with the help the web 2.0 tools.  My students have become more engaged and are excited to showcase their learning in a new way.  And as Karl put it, “Sometimes this (technology) stuff amazes me!”

 

Education and Copyrights March 8, 2010

Legal Quicksand of the Internet

        I chose this adventure to familiarize myself with the different forms of copyright.  Even though I have heard of some of the forms (creative commons) I never realized the extent of copyright on the internet.  I now feel guilty all of those years I have been posting pictures from Google images and had no idea about the copyright on them.  Well I spent the last couple of days viewing and learning about the different forms of copyright.  David Warlick made the point on his site, “One of the most important lessons that we can teach our students about Net-based information is the concept that information is property.”  http://landmark-project.com/permission1.php

After sifting through the information on copyrights and terms associated with it (creative commons, mashup, copyleft) I feel I have gained a better understanding of each of the concepts. One concept that I had never heard of was mashup. Mashup is a term to “describe a web application that combines data or technology from several different sources.” http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/31613324/Make-your-own-mashup-maps.  Mashups have been popular in the music industry.  I guess it has helped some music artists with their career, improving record sales, expanding the group’s listener’s base and of course media attention.  From my understanding Mashups is some form of expression-without the permission of the copyright owner.  Along with mashups come questions about privacy and the ethics of sharing or borrowing information from online sources.  However, according to Judy O’Connell’s blog it stated, “For teaching purposes Screenlights licence lets you record short extracts from television and radio, and create a compilation. Students can also make a fair dealing with a work for the purpose of study, or criticism or review.” http://community.enhancetv.com.au/forum/topics/is-doing-the-mashup-a In the end, it is important for teachers and students to be aware of these different types of copyright laws and to understand its implications for such activities as Internet research, downloading programs and documents, creating websites and so forth.  Now that I am more aware of the Fair Use, and  copyright guidelines, I can provide students with better support.

Alec Couros has some videos on media literacy and technology posted on his blog called Open Thinking.

Education 2020 March 7, 2010

I just read a past article on Teacher Paperless about 21 things that will become obsolete in Education by 2020.  If you haven’t checked out, it is a very quick and interesting read.  I can definitely see maybe desks, paperbacks (I love my new amazon kindle I just bought!!!!), and homework on their way out, however there are many that I question.  One I question is parent/teacher conferences.  As much as I dread that night, parent/teacher conferences is a time to connect with parents.  It becomes a very different feeling from when you talk on the phone or email with a parent versus meeting them face to face.  Moving towards a virtual reality scenario, teacher paperless believes we will “become closer than ever as a result of virtual communication opportunities,” I think we will definitely be communicating more using different tools, but in the end which one is “better” meeting over Skype for instance or meeting face to face?  Or in end is it the same?  Do you get the same point across using either method?  Is meeting face-to face more sincere than using a virtual communication tool?

It will be very interesting to see what comes true out of this list and what will remain come 2020.  What will education look like in 2020, which in reality is just around the corner!