Learning Log – Final Reflection

This course has truly been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Downs when I viewed the assignments for each module as they came up, when I attempted to familiarize myself with the different tools, and frustration in general. Ups when I finally got what I wanted to happen, to happen, when I received some affirming feedback or suggestions on improvement, and relief now that the end is in sight and summer vacation can really begin! School let out on June 3 and I have surgery on my left shin on August 3 that will put me out of commission for 10 days so I’ll need to make the most of my one-week 2011 summer vacation!

Turns out I survived most of the bumps and bruises that came along with learning these new technological advancements. At first, they seemed to come pretty fast and furious and although I’m still not convinced that my output was the best it could have been, getting to try them out for potential future classroom use was a nice experience. Although I think I would have performed better if I was at McDaniel in a computer lab taking this class, I lived through my first online course experience – taking SED572 at the same time. Learning how to use Blackboard wasn’t too bad and I got used to that pretty quickly.

Realistically, I think I will work my way up to using these tools in the classroom. I would like to start with searching out other teachers that are willing and able to Skype with my students. At the end of each school year, I send an email to parents asking for general feedback about the school year and I’ve heard a few times that they wish my school would have some type of foreign language program. Although it is not written into our curriculum, I think that incorporating Spanish language skills (I have some background in this language) via Skype would be fun and educational for myself and the students. I will also work on digital stories and voicethreads with my students and potentially use this for book reports. I am still a little hesitant to try media such as Twitter or Facebook for school as it would require individual registrations and I’m not sure that parents would 100% back that idea.

I’ve saved many of the links from what we’ve studied and practiced throughout this course and plan to share them during back to school in-services with the other teachers and see if anyone is interested in learning about them. I’m not sure I’d be the best “teacher” of these tools, but I’d be willing to try. There are a lot of “digital immigrants” in my school!

I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of summer vacation because that 1st period bell isn’t too far off from ringing! Good luck with the 2011-2012 school year!

 

Learning Log – Assignment #5 – Wiki

Wiki

Whew! This was by far the most time consuming project of them all….and it’s still a work in progress. I found myself toying with so many different features until I [somewhat] was able to get it to look how I wanted. The trickiest part of this project was completing a series of “repeat assignments” to incorporate into this Wiki. I can see how initial set-up can be extremely time consuming, but after it is prepped, not much additional up-keep should be necessary. The students will end up doing much of the “editing” that the teacher is more a Wiki-monitor to ensure things stay on task.

I think using a Wiki for my class would definitely take some getting used to, but I feel that for the most part, the benefits would outweigh the drawbacks. When I peeked at some of my classmates Wikis, I was quite impressed to see what they were able to create. Mine could use a little enhancement with colors and more interactive features, but I don’t think there is enough time left to discover how to create these enhancements before the due-date! I’m just trying to make sure that I included all that was asked of us!

Whew! The end of summer classes really is in sight now!

 

Learning Log – Wikis

After doing some reading via the articles presented on Wiki technology, they really look to be great organizational tools for teachers to have students work and collaborate online. They can be used for any subject in almost any capacity. In the Vicki Davis video, I really like her point about how she works to teach her students so much more than mere knowledge – she teaches kids how to learn. Wikis allow collaboration to the extent that students want to discuss and learn more. They want to participate outside of school time. They want to do all that they can. She says, “Wikis breed experts” in that students are always continuing their thoughts, questions, and addressing concerns. How motivational!

In the video, I also liked the idea of some aspect of rewards. Her “Hall of Fame” seems like a gret intrinsic motivator that students will love and like Wikis in general, are free! One of her final pieces of advice, “Do not be a doorknob,” is on that can be applied in all areas. Whether learning about technology or the latest methods of getting a stain out of the run, no one should be waiting around for someone else to complete a task for them. We need to be working with our students to turn them into problem solvers for themselves. In the real world, everyone is expected to pull their own weight to contribute positively to our society. Asserting the importance of doing what you need to do to better yourself is a great lesson to learn early. Combined with learning to work effectively with peers, the futures of the next generation is bright. (Now only if we could get Congress to work together as effectively as some of the students in Vicki Davis’s classes…)

Here are some of the educational Wikis I found and enjoy:

5th Grade Vocabulary Wiki – This Wiki is incredibly simple and for such a beginner like me, I think it was a nice place to start. Nothing too overwhelming. The basic concept is that, as students are reading, when they locate words that were used as school vocabulary or spelling words, they come to the Wiki, and post them to the page for the letter starting the world. They include the book, chapter, page number, and quote where the word was found. The teacher seems to want the kids to see how the words learned in school are used in everyday language.

Solar System Wiki – Moving right along, this Wiki seems a few steps up from the first. There are more choices to navigate through on the left table of contents. There are sections with helpful facts, useful inks, and student work including audio recordings and powerpoint planet presentations. I think this could be a good goal Wiki for a first time Wiki-er like me to achieve.

Mr. Webb’s Third Grade Class – If Mr. Webb is half as enthusiastic in the classroom as he presents himself on this Wiki, I’m sure he is a phenomenal teacher and his students love him. Out of the Wiki’s I’ve previewed, this would be the height of one that I would like to eventually achieve. I looked all around – and spent more time on it than I expected – and loved his set up. His expectations are clear and up front, the Wiki is easy to navigate and I like how he incorporates humor into his posts to represent himself as a fun and personable educator. There are lots of possible resources and information for parents and students to access on his site, but not as much in terms of discussion forums. I wonder if that will be something that he is enhancing throughout the year and learning to teach his students to use. (His Wiki has been up ~3 years now.)

After reading up on Wikis, watching the Viki Davis video, and previewing some in action, Wikis don’t seem all that bad or nightmare-ish to create. After this class is over, I will toy around with one that I can use for my own classroom, and if it isn’t too terrible, might consider venturing out to tell the other teachers at my school. (I’ve got to build up my own confidence first!)

 

Social and Collaborative Media + Voicethread

http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=2144929

If this doesn’t work, try looking at it on my iGoogle page: http://www.google.com/ig#t_0

This post contains my Voicethread assignment on Social and Collaborative Media. I chose to tell more about how social networking tools like Twitter and Skype can be used in the classroom. I discussed how these tools can be incorporated to support student instruction, ongoing parent contact and community collaboration, and communication and collaboration with the school community. Today’s students are the digital generation and their instruction needs to be guided accordingly.

Image Sources:

http://www.1ststoptravelstore.com/World_Globes_Replogle_Lenox_Desktop_Globe.htm
http://www.king5.com/news/education/Teacher-uses-Skype-for-parent-teacher-conference-89307262.html
http://www.zahradka-art.com/portfolio.php?art=34
http://www.virginiaservice.org/teaching-children-responsibility.html
http://www.dumblittleblogger.com/2011/05/13/will-twitter-ever-make-a-profit/
http://www.sps.springfield.ma.us/schoolsites/ells/dufraine/index.html
http://mrfeatherstone.blogspot.com/2009/04/unit-project-facebook-character.html
http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/new_official_portrait_released/

I wasn’t sure how to get this into the Voicethread, but here is the Creative Commons:

slm508lgm by Lesley Maurer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

 

My Favorite Social Networking Tool

 

Goodreads Bookshelf

http://www.goodreads.com/images/widget/widget2.swf

Lesley’s bookshelf: read

More of Lesley’s books »

document.getElementById(‘gr-fl-widget-1310080177’).innerHTML=””; // in case no flash/js

Describe how you will use the bookshelf and other ways you might use GoodReads in the instructional setting.

I could direct my students to books that I have chosen for them to peruse as related to the topic we are learning about. I chose books for the content area of US History, American Presidents, specific books about major wars, and the 50 states. Throughout the year, I would point out which one(s) in particular I’d like them to look into to gain some basic understanding and interesting insights to add to classroom discussions. Also, we follow the Book It program at my school. If allowed, parents could help their students complete their own bookshelves to document the books they have read over the course of the year. I’m sure they would love to be able to track the kinds and amounts of books they’ve completed. Kids would also enjoy being about to give each book a rating.

 

Google Docs – Back to School Survey

This is a Google Doc back to school survey that I can use with my students as we prepare for the first day of school. I could link this to my teacher webpage at school and have the students fill it out before opening day. It will give me a nice heads-up as to student perspective and I think they will like the interactive options. It should be relatively quick and easy for them to complete and I can easily access their responses.

 

iGoogle Screenshot

I had a terrible time getting the screenshot onto this post. I was able to find what I saved to my computer and thought I kept uploading it, but a picture never showed when I looked at the blog post. Finally, I did something and 4 of the same screenshot appeared. About 20 minutes and a husband’s help later, I was able to get it down to one. I’d like it to be larger, but am afraid that I’ll delete it by accident if I touch something else. If you click on it, it will show a larger image.

iGoogle seems like it would be very useful to help teachers and older students stay organized with their online portfolios. You can link pretty much anything to your homepage and it is very convenient to be able to have one-click technology to get to where you need to be. In a way, it seems like a fancy interactive bookmark list. For example, I can make a “tweet” for Twitter right from the iGoogle homepage. I tried to put main items on the top or near the top of the page that I would refer to most frequently. It is very easy to shift things around just in case something else happens to pop up and take precedence. For example, if I was waiting for an important email message, I could move my Gmail email to the top of the page. (Gmail email and Yahoo email are both in the column under Twitter, but you can’t see that on the screenshot.)

In the classroom, it would be helpful to keep iGoogle as your homepage so that you can easily navigate around to what you need for class that day. It would be a quick and easy to find a YouTube video – if your school doesn’t block it – and use it for presentation/examples during a lesson. You and/or students could also be able to track Twitter to follow the most current updates from authors, scientists, doctors, writers, etc. you are following. Teacher’s could use the Google Reader gadget to keep up-to-date with professional organizations they are following and would be able to scroll through their postings until they see something that peaks their interest.

 

Skype Experience

I have Skyped individually with a few classmates and a friend of mine from undergrad who lives in Chicago. Both worked fine. I really liked watching the YouTube video of the Skype overview. It could have been labeled “Skype for Dummies” and I would have flocked to it faster, but although simple, it was helpful to understand the basics.

From the links in the course guide, I checked out a link to a wiki page where a teacher and his/her class was trying to skype a classroom in all 50 states to learn about climate, location, population, and culture/customs of each state. I requested to join this wiki because I teach the 50 states and if I could get it up and running at school, this would be a great project that the students would love!! I saw an email today that I was approved as a member.

Trying to hook up with and Skype an author also sounds like a nice idea I would try. I gave a book report assignment to my students in February to write a letter to the author of the book they chose – with assorted elements required. Skyping the author could be a way to “modernize” that idea. (Even though I do love a good snail-mail letter!) There are a bunch of really good ideas on the “50 Ways to use Skype” link that I could try. Some of my favorites are field trips, guest lecturers, present a performance, conference with parents, and Skype in the classroom (to connect to other teachers would would like to class Skype).

At 6pm last night – Wednesday – I was able to log onto Skype and start a conversation with Emily. We sent conference requests to Kyle and Karen (I’m pretty sure it was those two), but I’m assuming the account was open, but they were not at their computers. Emily and I chatted and sent files to each other. She first sent a powerpoint which turned out to take a long time to transfer, so she cancelled it and sent a one-page word document instead which worked fine.

Not too long into our conversation, we added Kate and had a 3-way conversation, again sending files. At first, we were helping each other trouble-shoot with different parts of the Skype menu, but not long into the conversation, Emily’s audio became very distorted to myself and Kate. Emily left the conversation and when it was just Kate and I, things were clear again. We discovered that in order to view a file from someone, you first had to save it to your own computer.

The 1pm Thursday conference call and it went OK….at first. Janet, Emily, Karen, and I were chatting. Then Karen had some audio/connection issues and dropped the call. I was in the middle of answering a question from Janet when somehow Skype interrupted me and neither could hear me. I eventually got back. But then we were talking again and Andrew called. I didn’t want to interrupt, but I didn’t want to leave him hanging so I answered his call, but shortly after “hi,” I lost my internet connection. Great timing huh?

I think I’ve done everything I needed to do for Skype. The moral of the story is….technology is WONDERFUL… when it works.

 

Twitter Account Update

So a few days into playing with Twitter and I’m having a lot of difficulty seeing myself actually being able to put it to use in my 5th grade classroom. When I have a message that I need to get out quickly to parents, I can whip up an email and send it out in under a minute to my students’ parents. Twitter’s limit of 140 characters doesn’t allow for much detail. Also, I do not think that my students’ – or most elementary students – parents would be OK with and allow their child to participate in this, even if it is just during school time. There is also the issue of kids that do not have internet access at home for after-school checking.

On the message board, Andrew brought up a good point about posting homework and reminders on Twitter. When students know they can check for “tweets” from their teacher(s), this is really just taking away from the responsibility of the student. He/she will learn to check nightly and slowly phase out or disregard using a organized book to write down assignments, project requirements, or test dates. Andrew also pointed out that students might get into the bad habit to think that if there is nothing posted, there is nothing to do. Although making a “tweet” is easy, it’s just another thing on the long list of daily chores for a teacher to do before he/she can head home for the day.

Another issue that would be of huge concern to me is potential legal implications! I feel like through my school’s policies, parents would need to complete a consent form for their children to be on Twitter. What if they chose not to have their child access the site? What if they did and the person/people that our students start to follow don’t post the nicest comments. Is language monitored on Twitter? Content? Are there ways that some “tweets” could be filtered for younger users? What if some posts an unsavory profile picture? There are a lot of “what-ifs…”

While I think people still need to tread carefully with Facebook teacher/student interaction, I agree that it could be a better option for social media communication. Pictures, tags, notes, videos, links, etc. are nice tools.

I can really only see Twitter being helpful to myself as an elementary teacher as keeping abreast of professional development journal updates and news.

****Sidenote FYI**** The first – and only so far – problem that I’ve had with Twitter is “unwelcome/unsavory visitors” that chose to follow me. I asked around and my cousin was quickly able to guide me to “Settings” and check the box that says “Protect my tweets.” This has you approve new followers before they can see your posts.