Thursday, July 29, 2010
Day 2 - Thursday
What excellent Web 2.0 presentations this morning. Joanne and I really picked up some new things during them. Share something you are really interested in pursuing around Web 2.0 tools. Remember to start small and build on it. Great discussions about the many issues around the use of these tools and examples today. Please share any other questions you may have or comments about class today.
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I'm a bit overwhelmed with web 2.0 tools. It feels like this could be all we do, play with different web tools.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I want to use glogster, so that is what I will commit to today. This could be useful for all kinds of presentations that kids are making. I want to get much better at using google earth also.
I continue to think about using the tools in a transformative, student-centered way. That's really hard. There are a lot of great tools, but how do I challenge the students to use them meaningfully for their own learning? When I think of "transformative" right now, I'm not only thinking of what students do to make change, but how what they do changes them - transformation. How can we use the tools as gateways to constantly challenge them to transform themselves? To see the world and themselves in it organically - growing and changing.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how much we covered today! I am really interested in kidblog, animoto, voice thread, and I've already started my own page on Shelfari:). I also got a lot out of Joanne's tutorial of Photo Story. I am realizing though that I am going to need to pick one tool to start with and then add in some others. I know I will use Photo Story and am also planning on doing a kidblog on my webpage (to take the place of my newsletters I post). I got a good start on my project as well so I am feeling a lot less overwhelmed. On to Day 3!
ReplyDeleteWhat a day! I had never seen Voicethread and really enjoyed that presentation. I'm interested in figuring out some ways to incorporate that into my Social Studies unit I'm working on for this class. I also appreciated the time to work. My KUD and one activity are done:)
ReplyDeleteI have used some Web 2.0 tools in my classroom such as Animoto and Glogster. The struggle that I have is making sure that the learning opportunities I provide students require them to do some higher order thinking. If I am only asking them to regurgitate information in an electronic format then the technology is unnecessary. My goal is to find challenging and enriching ways to integrate the technology with student learning.
ReplyDeleteI learned something new from every presentation today. I really appreciate the respectful and collaborative atmosphere we are all creating. I am pursuing an online collaborative research project with my students. I have new ideas today of adding a blog, a portaportal and one or more of the many visual display options to this project.
ReplyDeleteI'd echo what Karen had to say. Using the tools is fun and the kids really enjoy them but I think its important that I'm always asking myself if using them is really necessary.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate having the time to work. I was able to complete my KUD as well as a skills list of things I'm going to assess. I also was able to begin a time table of how to roll out the unit. Looking forward to another productive day tomorrow!
I really enjoyed learning about the Web 2.0 tools. I felt that several of the tools would fit quite nicely into my second grade classroom. Such as kidblog. I envision using this in reading groups and posting a response question for kids to respond to during the week. This would take much modeling and teaching to have my second graders become proficient and independent with. I also really like glogster but I would need to become more familiar with the tool before I would feel comfortable using it with my students. I enjoyed having the time to work on our projects and feel that we are making great progress integrating technology in a meaningful way into our moon unit. Thanks Joanne for teaching my how to work Photostory, I think my kids will love it and I can see using this a lot!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the 2.0 presentations today and feel much more comfortable with all of this information now. While all of these tools are exciting, I struggle with how I can incorporate these tools into my teaching and have students use them. I have a unique teaching situation, only seeing kiddos once a week for 40 minutes and I don't have my own classroom. Nonetheless, I found Glogster to be really interesting and should be able to incorporate that into my 3rd and 4th grade lessons.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the ability to work on this and our projects during class. It's reassuring having both the teachers and each other around to discuss ideas, and work out challenges. Great, inspirational conversations, too!
During our work with Animoto Sherry, Stacey, and I discussed that educationally this tool would probably be used as a culminating project to present information learned. An example of integration in first grade would be to use it with our organism unit on monarchs. The kids could use a digital camera to take pictures of the stages of the monarch (from live specimens in our science center), use text, and include music in their presentation. This would be motivating and engaging, however is still at the literacy level. I had difficulty thinking of how this could be used to promote higher level learning. I enjoyed seeing the other tools that the groups presented. I am interested in trying kidblog and think I could it incorporate during literacy/reading time to have kids reflect on books that they read. I found working in a smaller group with Photostory most useful and plan to use it with my second graders during our Moon unit and to publish other pieces of their writing. I left with my head spinning yesterday but feel much better and less overwhelmed today.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a packed two days of wading (maybe swimming) in the Web. I have had my eyes opened to some great programs that I will definitely use this year. PhotoStory, GoogleEarth, Animoto are a few for my classroom but the Shelfari will be the one I suggest for my bookgroup. I love being able to talk with other teachers to hear how they set up their time on the computer/s to be most useful to students. I will be in the computer lab this year, have no doubt! I will use the Wiki but do not think that I will be blogging anytime soon...except for class. I was impressed with MMU's net books and can't even imagine how these will open new avenues for both teachers and students learning. Had a good day today and will look forward to continuing to work on projects tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHelen-
ReplyDeleteI think Animoto has a lot of other possibilities than just for culminating projects. You could use it to start a unit by asking students to find pictures of a topic (say food in Mexico) and making an Animoto. You can use it with students to demonstrate vocabulary (say in a rainforest unit with students making a video of a layer of the rainforest and the animals/plants in it), you could use it in math after you had kids find pictures (or take them) of geometric figures, and I think you can use it to compare and contrast (say an animoto comparing dress in Africa to dress in our country.)
Personally I've used Animoto and find it a great tool for working with kids. I think there are possibilities for all levels of thinking from comprehending to synthesizing and more.
I agree with most of what everyone else stated. I really appreciate the time to explore/try a new tool after we learn about it. I feel like the kid learning to ride a two wheeler bike. Right now I still need the training wheels (Joanne, Lisa, helpful classmates). I'm almost ready to take the training wheels off but will need more practice before I'm ready to ride in heavy traffic!
ReplyDeleteGreat work everyone! I find it hard to believe that we have only had two days of class so far. I see a lot of progress from everyone and the discussions have been wonderful. After reading these posts, I feel that Lisa and I have "students" who "get it." The questions you are asking about how to use technology appropriately and to create classroom atmospheres where higher level thinking is encouraged proves to me that you are all on the right track. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteInspiring presentations on the Web 2.0 tools. I will echo from previous posters the desire to use the tools in a way that asks students to change and further the way they think. I like glogster and animoto but would want to make sure the assignment asked the students to do more than create a poster with pre-recorded presentation. The presentations also reinvigorated my interest in having the kids make movies.
ReplyDeleteI was encouraged by all the different Web 2.0 sites that were easily accessable and user friendly. I really liked Glogster. It seems like a great tool for kids, user friendly, and gives an opportunity to enhance learning. Mike, Jenn, and I have talked about setting up Glogster for our COOP and hopefully create an integrated assignment or two for the students to do on the site. I am really excited about this upcoming school year.
ReplyDeleteAs I've been thinking about using social media for teacher-parent-student communication and community a nagging concern has been bouncing around the back of my head. Web 2.0 is social, social media without social is just media, it's not transformative. Our school's user agreement stipulates that a student's work or picture is only posted on the web with (blanket) consent and identified only with initials.
ReplyDeleteI know my students, but I struggle to connect with M.H., E.L., M.T. And did the blog pseudonym SailorBoy belong to Trevor or Wanda?
Facebook uses real names (first AND Last) and while Blogger allows you to set a screen name, but I'm back in the fog of anonymity and can I make sure 60+ student and all of the associated parent screen names conform to the EMS user agreement?
I'm not sure what prompted me, but at some point yesterday I looked at the user agreement and the foundational school board policy and discovered the policy allows the use of student names with consent. How I implement social media for my project hinges on issues I pestered Lisa about all afternoon. Was the stricter user agreement a calculated effort to entice consent the first pictures and work from leery parents years ago? Did a provision of CIPA, COPPA, or FERPA precipitate a user agreement change and the policy is simply out of compliance?
In the meantime, I found a really interesting example of a first grade teacher using a Facebook Group only the teacher's account can post to and student's post during they day.
It's intriguing enough to pursue despite how murky things appear at this point. I'm a bit stressed that I'm stuck figuring out whether I can implement my project instead of how I will. I'm working like crazy, but I'm not creating anything just yet.