http://www.findingdulcinea.com, http://www.sweetsearch.com. Just a few places students can go for vetted websites to provide them with reliable information for research projects.
So much to learn, so little time…….
Two weeks have never gone so fast! First of all huge shout out to Steve Knight, teacher extraordinaire who used all the right research based best practices for keeping our instruction engaging, interesting and above all relevant! I will actually refer back to my notebook for once and will keep it in my classroom for ideas on places to go for yet more ideas! My personal concern is that I will fall out of habit with my blog and my twitter posts. What I have found so great about these tools is they force me to think and be relevant myself. They force a person to not just say what they are up to but what they are thinking about and how it matters. One side note, I signed up for the Ning Classroom 2.0 and have already come upon an important article that stresses “classroom management first, technology second”. Classroom management is my biggest area of weakness so it was helpful to get ideas from this Ning already!. Here is the link:
Below is a video I found that supports pretty much everything we talked about as far as student engagement and learning.
One shot is of a student holding a piece of paper that says, “I multitask, I have to”. One thing we learned, based on research is that students can NOT multitask,they only think they can. The age old questions have always been; “how do we teach our children”,and better yet “how do we measure their success?”. One thing I always knew but now have research to back it up is that by using visuals and inquiry based teaching methods we can engage students and facilitate long term retention. As we discussed in class, have students USE their laptops and smart phones for active research and participation. Our class used “Today’s Meet”; while we were typing we certainly weren’t paying attention to the presentation however it allowed us to pick and choose statements that we thought were pertinent throughout the video and allowed us to respond and have a conversation about these things.
The biggest things I am taking away from this class are the advantages of technology in education as they pertain to Bloom’s taxonomy, long term retention, content mastery and ultimately the ability to synthesize, analyze and create! (Bloom’s) These are skills the 21st century student will need in the real world. Learning about the research that supports these tenets was key and I plan to implement technology in library, specifically via twitter, a class blog and digital storytelling! The power of the printed word is important and if we as educators can direct our children to read the right material, how powerful is that? I plan to have my 8th graders with smartphones download the galenet app for research purposes and I am going to use voice thread to talk about important authors and trends in research. For personal professional development I have already reaped the benefits of Classroom 2.0, a ning that Mr. Knight recommended, also by using “Diigo”, I can get continuous updates from organizations that pertain to my current job and I plan on watching many TED videos and use these for subs! This class was timely because I was running out of options for my subs and these tools will really boost my “idea bank”.
With all the options that are out there now and only more to come along with technology getting less and less expensive, students can engage and express themselves in ways I could never have dreamed of. Long term retention, content mastery, and above all the top layers of Bloom’s taxonomy are achieved using technology and I’m a fan like never before. I only wish this class were at least a month long because I feel we only tipped the iceberg!
Day Nine!
My post today will reflect the TED video that I chose which was about how blogging can make the world a friendlier, nicer place. The speaker was Mena Trott who won a blogging award and started a company (blog) with her husband. She goes on to say that Blogs are a revolution. What I think she means is that blogging not only can give your children and your children’s children a glimpse of your world but the rest of the world can see who you are, how you are feeling and that you are a regular guy just like everyone else. She mentions that based on her family’s records and records available through the government she could only go back 5 generations. With blogs, we have the capacity to create an ongoing conversation starting with one generation and moving through further generations. I must admit, I wasn’t crazy about her delivery and she wasn’t seeming to “get to the point” which drove me a little nuts so I could only infer by what she was saying that what she meant was blogging gives us the ability to share stories. Storytelling is ancient and it will never die, this is just another, perhaps more efficient way to “tell our stories”.
Day Eight!
I can’t believe in a day and a half, my class time for technology class will be finished! What a shot in the arm this class was! Never have I felt so challenged and enlightened all at the same time. My worry is that after this class, I will lose my momentum and go back to “business as usual”. Hopefully not. Today, we saw a webinar on different ways to use Web 2.0 for class projects, lessons, etc. It discussed a timeline site, a photo editing site (that’s free) and a fake “facebook” page site where kids can create profile pages about famous people from history, science, mathematics, anything.
We also worked on our social network project. Daniela and I found “ning” which I had never heard of before. I found it by google searching “social studies and social network lessons” and one of the top responses was a social studies unit that incorporated the use of “Ning.com”. After a little digging, we discovered that this site is pretty cool. A user is able to create their own profile page as opposed to a facebook format where your page is made for you. The user can upload photos, connect via RSS, they can chat live, blog, set up events, invite and share, etc. What else is neat is that users need to apply to be accepted into a Ning so a particular ning won’t have unwanted participants who don’t add to the conversation. Ning is used predominantly for professional development, it is not allowed by federal law for anyone under 13 so that precludes me from using it at my school with students. But I can set one up for our teachers. Drawbacks include limited space in addition to not being able to share with teachers outside of my school unless I go to another ning. Ning can also be time consuming which is another drawback.
We discussed how voice threads are good for assistive technology, allowing those who otherwise might not participate in the classroom to participate online.
Day seven!
Hard to believe it’s Tuesday of the second week of technology class – today we discussed “Brain Rules” and some of the highlights from the book. Bottom line; we don’t pay attention to boring things and too much text in power points or any presentation is more than the brain can handle. One thing I can do more of in the classroom is show visuals in addition to telling stories. Telling stories is what I do and it works however the visuals add a HUGE element to what may be missing in some of my lessons. In addition, I can add a relevant activity; for example, one lesson that was a big hit was about Osama Bin Laden being killed. The kids had so many questions so I incorporated the U.S.’ search for him (by showing a news clip) into a lesson on Atlases. The kids followed along with the video the places Bin Laden was versus where our troops were looking. Vision is the most used sense so I will be incorporating many more visuals into my lessons in addition to far less text.
I also liked the idea of the “intermission” in the middle, perhaps my students can tell a joke or two using the timer as a classroom management tool. I LOVED the idea of using a “clustrmap” for a class blog or “twitter-like” function. I could use this with books the children like to read or Authors they find interesting, perhaps we can talk about the new Harry Potter movie that just came out and see if we get any responses from other places in the world. So much out there!!
My finished product!!
The Berlin Wall from Katherine McKeon on Vimeo.
Berlin and the Wall
Berlin and the Wall. My digital story!!
Day six of Techno class!
Once again, I am tired…I think it’s because of all the thinking and new learning I am doing. Sometimes when we are thinking and putting new concepts together while assimilating them into our “pre-wired” brains it can be draining. I spent HOURS putting together my really good but not quite chronologically correct “Berlin Wall” Animoto slideshow. I’m loving this site..could be better but hey..I’m not complaining, this site does an amazing job of taking ordinary photos, text and videos and putting them in a format that is engaging! This will be great for “hooks”!
This morning we watched a short video on the what really motivates us and then had a brief discussion. The biggest thing I got out of this is that autonomy, mastery and purpose were the three things that motivates people in general. Once again, this corresponds to what the young college student was saying in the video I looked at last week. She was saying what most of us already know..that there are no “hours of operation” for critical thinking and once again, technology can help us by allowing that flexibility. If we can take Gardner’s multiple intelligences, put it together with the content that needs to be mastered, take away the “required” hours for that particular task, we might just get content mastery which is what every teacher, administrator and parent wants!
Week One of Techno class!
Okay, so I got home from class this afternoon at 2:00pm – I was the last one to leave. As Mr. Knight mentioned, we would be overwhelmed and the learning curve steep. He was right. I took a TWO hour nap this afternoon when I got home!! So much to process, so many buzzwords, terms, new ideas and new habits to get into. I just love this class though, I’m learning an enormous amount and am excited about the ways I can use so many products so enhance my students’ learning.
After just one week I am now not just tweeting regularly (not only do I have one Twitter account but I have two), but I am podcasting, blogging, PLNing, digital storytelling, I have a vimeo account, I am Google calendering and Google documenting…woo-hoo!!
The biggest thing I have learned and will apply in the classroom is that technology fosters not only individuality and creativity but long term retention. This is KEY! When we are sending kids out into the worldwide workforce with this retention they can analyze their world more easily, conduct business better and thus, private companies will not have to spend more money than public schools re-educating their employees in order to get them up and running (this is currently happening). This is another reason why teachers and administrators should also have a Business Degree (IMHO). Also, technology should not be used once in awhile but regularly and consistently in ALL subject areas! As a librarian I can use digital storytelling to turn my students into published authors, comic strip writers or video producers. I can have them download apps to their smartphones to allow easy access to reliable, safe sources (galenet in particular) where at the touch of a button they can access this information instead of googling and going straight to Wikipedia. By using my personal learning network I can receive regular updates from organizations and individuals that will help me with lesson planning, professional development, even classroom management. The possibilities are endless. On my agenda as well is to do a number of podcasts for days when I am absent or for snow days (loving Fairfax County’s new “no snow days” policy!). In addition, by letting my work colleagues know about Google docs, they perhaps can integrate the document sharing ability to be able to show parents what their student is/or is NOT doing in the classroom. I can think of a student whose parents are totally in denial about their child’s behavior and disrespect issues, if there is a way for the teacher to say “here it is” via google perhaps the parents will wake up and realize their student needs some direction.
Finally, the world of education will change; this I am sure of. We are in the midst of a new “renaissance” and it is so exciting so be able to allow our students not to think critically between the hours of 8:00am and 3:00pm but any time of day that they come up with an idea or want to facilitate learning something that grabs their attention. What an amazing time our children are in; if only I had this when I was growing up.
This is my podcast about the Berlin Wall!! Made today, July 15th, 2011
kitcmckeon 