Thing 23 - Add your reflections to the K12 Learning 2.0 Voicethread; Blog about your experiences and next steps
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Nothing like finishing at the last possible second! Shelley has without a doubt created an exceptional and powerful course for educators. My goal is to encourage every single faculty, staff and administrative member of our school community to complete this course at some point. I would try to have them all complete it at one time, but that would be suicide – Death by Mentoring Overload! LOL… just teasing… sort of. I am looking forward to just focusing on mentoring during the Summer 2008 course though, rather than mentoring as well as participating simultaneously. I often fell behind on my own course work because I was focusing on helping my fellow Trinity teachers (participants) to succeed, develop and learn throughout the course. It became an psychological strain on me to know how far behind I was while all of my “mentees” were succeeding and keeping up so well! I am however extremely proud of each and every one of them. They all worked incredibly hard and were genuinely excited about everything they were learning throughout the past twelve weeks. It’s amazing to see the excitement spread and watch them as they try to engage other teachers around them in to taking in the new knowledge they now have to offer one another. Participating in this course online has helped to develop new bonds and professional relationships among our school participants. Whenever, participants pass each other in the hallway they will often excitedly ask “What thing are you on?” or shout “Thing 17, baby!” as they slap each other high-fives. It’s so much fun! I hope that excitement continues as more and more teachers participate in this incredible program.
Two of my favorite new tools that I am excited to be taking from this course are ed.VoiceThread and PageFlakes. I have already convinced the Instructional Technology team to purchase a subscription for an ed.VoiceThread community. I introduced it during a faculty meeting a couple months ago and it has taken off! The teachers are totally psyched about the tool and have been creating projects with their students left and right. It’s incredible! PageFlakes is going to be an incredible tool for me to be able to develop technology integration resources that I can share amongst the teachers. I can only hope that it takes off as well as Trinity’s ed.voicethread community.
Thing 23 - Add your reflections to the K12 Learning 2.0 Voicethread; Blog about your experiences and next steps
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The world is rapidly changing and advancing all around us. I can envision a time when we will no longer be able to determine a clear divide between the ‘world of education’ and the ‘world of technology’. We are living in an era where new technologies are emerging, and old technologies are improving, on a minute by minute basis. Today’s children and students have never known a time when they were without technology in their daily lives. Therefore, I feel it is our duty as educators to teach these digital natives, our students of today, and our leaders of tomorrow, in the modality of learning that is most conducive to their technology-enriched learning styles.
As an educator, I want to empower students to learn through the use of technology. I want them to view school as a place where they can explore their curiosities and expand their knowledge, not only through books, but through the use of technology tools that enable them to grow, share and learn with the global classroom, the global community. I strive to instill in my students a life-time love of learning. I believe the only way to accomplish this goal is to show them that education and technology are intertwined; they are not separate entities and to do that we must learn, use and model the appropriate and beneficial uses of technology tools for our students. My goal as an Instructional Technology Specialist is to empower educators to do just that, to implement and integrate the use of emerging technology and web 2.0 tools in their classrooms and with their students.
Thing 22 - Learn about Social Networking and explore the Classroom 2.0 and other education-related NING Networks
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I’ve been a member of a few social networking sites (MySpace/Facebook) for many years now but purely for the social fun of it. I also belong to Linkedin which is a professional networking for career growth and development. My first experience with a Professional Learning Community (PLC), which also marks my introduction to NING, was via the professional development program entitled Powerful Learning Practices (PLP). Sheryl Nausbaum-Beach set up a NING social network for the participants of the program to connect us with each other in the 20 participating private schools as well as with “expert voices” from across the world. It has been a great way to connect with people worldwide who are integrating technology and web 2.0 tools in the educational environment. NING communities, as well as other social networks, serve as a common place for members who share common interests and goals to exchange resources, host discussions, collaborate on projects and trade ideas.
I now belong to several NING social networks that focus on integrating technology in education, including:
As a culminating project for the PLP program, I set up a virtual NING community for our school faculty and staff called “Trinity 2.0″. The Trinity PLP Team’s hope is that Trinity 2.0 will serve as a way to connect our community of educators and personnel together on a more personal and social level in the beginning. In order to lure the teachers into using the virtual PLC we have set up groups with social-sharing themes like “Recipe Exchange”, “For Sale” and “Restaurant Reviews”, as well as many more. After we have thoroughly “hooked” our teachers and staff into using the Trinity 2.0 network, we will begin to phase in professional development modules and cross-department collaboration groups. To begin this “phasing in” process I came up with the idea of having a group where teachers could share the various projects they are creating with their students using technology and web 2.0 tools. Another one of my teammates suggested calling this group “My Successes.”
I am keeping my fingers crossed that Trinity 2.0 catches on like wildfire at the beginning the next school year when we officially launch it to the faculty and staff of Trinity.
Thing 21 - Create a custom start page using PageFlakes
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I have been using iGoogle for years now and I love it! I’ve also played around with other personalized homepage tools like Netvibes, Protopage, yourminis and Schmedley so I was already familiar with the basic features PageFlakes had to offer. However, I was elated to learn and reflect on all the educational benefits that PageFlakes can provide with its sharing and broadcasting features. The sharability is something that I have not come across on other personal home page sites I’ve explored in the past. However, these incredibly powerful features make it seem as if the integration possibilities are endless!
As a former classroom teacher, this really makes me wonder…
How many teachers are currently using PageFlakes with their classes?
In what ways are teachers implementing the various PageFlakes features with their classes?
Do they have a general class homepage pagecast that includes such ‘flakes’ as notes from them to the students, homework assignments, links to class related documents or websites, research areas, a built in dictionary or thesaurus, podcasts created by their students or even pictures of their various classroom projects or events?
Have any teachers created a page focused on a curriculum unit or topic, where they place relevant ‘flakes’ pertaining to what they are currently studying? For example, a page all about the Greek Olympics, with links to Flickr photos, blogs, news feeds, podcasts, videos, etc… each pertaining to information about the Greek Olympics.
In my current role as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I am going to work on creating technology integration resource PageFlakes Pagecasts that I can then share with the teachers at my school. I have already created a Promethean Activclassroom pagecast. I’ve included a RSS Feed flake for the Promethean Planet – Activtips video podcast series; a RSS Feed flake for the ActivEducator Blog from Promethean; Web Site Clipper flakes that target the three main areas of the Promethean Planet Forum; and a Bookmarks flake that features links to Promethean’s multiple resource sites for educators. I also created a del.icio.us account with the username: Activeducator so that I could pull in sites tagged with various terms synonymous with not only Promethean but also interactive whiteboards and their use in the classroom. Then, I added a del.icio.us feed flake that features a tag cloud for the user “Activeducator”; additionally, I added another del.icio.us feed flake that uses the tag: activclassroom. I’ve also included a Flickr Photostream flake targeting the tag: activclassroom; as well as the Universal Video Search flake and the YouTube flake to feed in videos tagged: Promethean, Activclassroom. I plan to create two more Promethean pagecasts that will target their two incredibly powerful software programs: ActivStudio and ActivPrimary. These Pagecasts will focus on resources and lesson plans that can be used by or within the Activ software programs.
Over the summer, I am psyched to be able to work on creating more and more pages that pertain to various educational technology integration ideas or tools that are already available to the teachers at our school, but are sorely underutilized. To begin with I plan to create PageFlakes Pagecasts for software programs like Kidspiration, Google Earth, SketchUp and even Scratch, as well as, web 2.0 tools such as ed.Voicethread and Google Docs. Although I think I might begin my PageFlakes Pagecasts creation excursion with creating pages that focus on resources for creating and using podcasting, wikis and blogs in the classroom. I also aim to create a page that focuses on technology tutorials and how-to resources, this will definitely include links to (hopefully feeds if I can find a way to make it work) Atomic Learning where we recently bought a subscription to for our school community.
Thing 20 - Use Google Docs to create and share collaborative documents, spreadsheets and presentations
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I must admit I don’t use Google Docs as much as I should or plan to do. I guess you could say old habits are hard to break when it comes to creating documents. I am still using desktop publishing software and often times find myself needing a document that I don’t have access to when not on my work laptop and promptly kicking myself for not uploading or creating documents on Google Docs in the first place.
I see tremendous potential and countless possibilities for using Google Docs not only in the classroom but across the entire school community. A few possibilities and ideas for using Google Docs (because I could go on for hours) include:
Student collaboration on a class project
Faculty / staff collaboration on curriculum planning and department discussions
Parent conference sign-ups / scheduling
School event schedule sign-up sheets
Student / Teacher homework collaboration –
the student can complete their work in Google Docs and invite their teacher as a collaborator to evaluate the work, or
the teacher can create the assignment in Google Docs and invite their students as collaborators to complete the assignment (of course the students would need to save the “default” document with their user id or initials at the end in order to complete assignments individually – obviously this doesn’t apply to group work)
Parent communication and classroom event planning among the parents of the class
School, Department, or Team Meeting Agendas could be posted here and designated attendees (several) could edit and add “live” notes during the meetings for others to reference later
Multiple school collaboration – for example my school’s Instructional Technology Team could collaborate with Woodward’s Instructional Technology Team on planning Internet Safety Week for our respective schools. Thus, sharing ideas on events, presentation files and such among various schools. I for one would find this benefit incredibly useful…although the same could be accomplished through the use of a wiki, with the exception of exchanging files.
Thing 19 - Intro to Video Sharing; Explore YouTube and TeacherTube
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I enjoy exploring video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video and TeacherTube; but I am far from being an addict like many students and adults that I know. I definitely see integration possibilities for using such sites within the classroom environment, provided the content used is in alignment with the curriculum goals and objectives. Too many times I have seen fellow educators showing useless videos and other multimedia content in the classroom as an attempt to integrate technology into the classroom. However, their efforts are misguided and highly ineffective as the content does not do anything to deepen or enhance the learning experience for the students.
One area of caution and concern surrounding these public video-sharing sites is the danger of exposing your students to inappropriate material via the links and previews to additional content available at the end of the selected and viewed video. These links are often completely irrelevant to the video you previously viewed and can expose the students to any number of things that would be deemed inappropriate for school-aged children. It’s much like the “next blog” feature in Blogger, where you have no idea where it’s going to take you. In a way, I guess it’s like playing Russian Roulette.
However, while exploring with YouTube this time, I came across a rather hilarious video about how to bath a cat. Now, if any of you have ever had the experience of trying to actually give a cat a bath you will no doubt be able to relate to the humorous, yet in “oh so true”, depiction of the experience.
Podcasting truly is easy, engaging and fun once you have experimented with it a few times. My former students engaged in multimedia recording activities throughout the school year and they loved the experiences. Seeing the pride in their eyes and the happiness through their smile assured me that it truly was a valuable learning experience for them…which only encouraged me to create more podcasting and vodcasting activities aligned with our curriculum goals.
My Ideas for Podcasting in the Elementary Classroom:
Creative Story-telling – record student narrating an original story; great for very young students who have not yet developed reading and writing skills
Build Reading Fluency – record student reading a story passage and then allow the student to listen and critique their recording
Foreign Language Lab – students listen to a prompt recorded in a foreign language and then respond to that prompt in the same language of study
Author Studies
Reporter for a Day
Fieldtrip Reflections
Historic Radio Shows
Book Talks
Poetry Readings
Short Story audio recordings
Reader’s Theatre – a great way to incorporate video as well, thus creating a Vodcast
Research/Book Reports
Oral Reports/Presentations – great for students who have a hard time speaking in front of an audience (like I did in school)
Thing 17 - Intro to Podcasting; Explore some educational podcasts
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I have been a podcatcher and a podcaster for over three years now. I subscribe to over fifteen different podcast series using iTunes and often listen to them during my daily commute between school and home. The podcasts I find the most interesting and useful are those that help me to stay in touch with emerging trends and technologies.
Conference Connections, produced by Apple Distinguished Educators, delivers some of the most innovative content from the most exciting workshops, forums and discussions at leading technology conferences across the USA and around the world.
David Pogue, The New York Times personal-technology columnist, reports weekly on new technology in the video series Video: Technology | David Pogue. David Pogue Presents a fun, unbiased look at new technology. His reviews openly point out the things that we have all longed for the world to catch on to in a very humorous and clever way. He has a way of transforming a less than exciting topic like streaming or routers into something hilarious and understandable. Many technology reviews that I have come across have placed me into a sleep induced state of activity, it’s great to finally find one that is unique, interesting and humorous.
While I was teaching in the classroom, before coming to Trinity School to assume my role as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I produced a series of podcasts, entitled HighTech2, with my second grade students. I say that I am a “classroom podcaster” as I always produced episodes that involved and focused on the students in my class. Each and every time it was a very rewarding experience not only for myself, but also for my students and their families. My only regret is not having created them more often with my students.
Over the past few weeks, Mrs. Stafford and I have co-produced a series of student created podcasts entitled TrinityMD. The TrinityMD project was originally developed by Mrs. Stafford as part of a technology infused unit in correlation with the sixth grade TabletPC Program. The focus of this year’s project-based learning unit targeted diseases and disorders that affect the human body. We worked together to publish the series of podcast episodes on our school’s Project Source wikispace. I encourage you to visit the TrinityMD wiki and listen to the student’s final projects. You can view the TrinityMD podcast feed and subscribe to the series here.
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