What needs to change in education

BP16_20091115_EducationalUsesofBlogs

After completing several other assignments, I have found many different uses for blogging in the classroom.

First of all, I would like to start a weekly blog of the high points of our classroom. Students would have access to help create the blog either in the classroom, through a group writing process, or online by adding comments to the blog. As the year progressed and students understood what makes a good blog post and get better at typing, it could be used with students as a daily motivator-having classroom reporters daily add to our blog. At times throughout the year, I would then use the Web 2.0 tool that Megan shared with us, Zinepal (zinepal.com) and print out the blogs to create our own "zine" that the students would be able to keep and also have a class copy to share with future classes.

Also, blogging lends itself to be a very nice portal to "sloppy copy writing." What I mean by this is that students who are proficient at typing (or those that aren't so proficient but want to do it) would be able to type up their "sloppy copy" or rough draft of any writing that we are completing in class and have other students add comments suggesting draft changes and allow me to do so as well and have a great paperless classroom. If I were to do this in a classroom, I would have students type it up in a word processing program and then copy and paste what they wrote into their blog. Then they would be able to make changes easily to their writing and then email the document to me.

Finally, edmodo (edmodo.com), edu2.o (http://www.edu20.org/), and Gaggle email (gaggle.net) all have a "blog like" capability. This would allow the teacher to have one site (or all three if they want) where students could "blog" about what they are learning. In edmodo and edu 2.0, they could start a discussion about the different subjects they are covering in those course management systems and use Gaggle as an online journal allowing students to post what they want and have a little fun.

Blogs have great potential to have students start to write in new and exciting ways and allow a community of writers to be created. By using a blog and a word processing program to create the posts, students have the freedom to write what they want rather than just the bare minimum knowing that changes can be done quickly and painlessly (not having to rewrite the whole piece over 10 times by hand).

BP15_20091115_ReflectiveMedia

A web burglar introduces you to a new Web 2.0 website.

BP14_20091115_Web2.0ToolsComment3

McKinley_Megan_Researching and Blogging about Web 2.0 Tools 3

http://www.zinepal.com/ is this amazing Web 2.0 site where you can turn your blogs into a printable magazine. This is exciting because after this class I could go back and take all the blogs I have written for this class and turn them into a professional looking magazine that I could take along with my on job interviews to show my media background. It would be a great site to use with students as well because you could have them blog on literature as they were reading novels in your English class, and then have them turn all of their blogs into a really exciting magazine as their final projects. This would be a great lesson that would really engage the "whole brain" learning approach, as it involves critical thinking skills, as well as creativity. Students could upload photos or graphics to make their magazines more visually exciting and it would be something they could take away from class and add to their own professional portfolios. I am definitely going to try this site once I am done with this class, so that I could have a paper version of all the hard work I have done in this class. I think students would also get a sense of accomplishment from having their very own magazine to have at the end of my classes. I also think I could use this site in my Journalism class to show students the differences between Newspapers and Magazine layouts. I am really excited to try out this tool both in my own life and in my classes.

Zinepal Solutions Inc. (2008-2009). Zinepal. Now you are the editor. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.zinepal.com/

BP13_20091115_Web2.0ToolsComment2

BL10_2009112_Reasearching and Blogging about Web 2.0 tools

Google Books This another new site that is great that Google has. Apparently book publishers filed a class action suit against Google for having books available to read on line. Google has come to an agreement with the publishers and now has a site that you can read many books on line or preview them. This is a great opportunity to be able to let your students sample different books and authors without ever leaving the classroom, while under your direction and guidance. This lets the student explore different genres for their pleasure as well as different authors. As we know students are more willing to read and engage with a computer screen than with actual published text. Wish I had this site available when I taught reading. You could even let them read to you to check their fluency on the book because they are in class with you. I can not wait to see if I can use this site at school. Try it out www.books.google.com. Sounds to me that this is better than e-books. I would like to know how many of you have Web 2.0 tools you have available to access at your school sites. If you could post and let me know what city and state you are from I would be very interested to know.

Some how lost my extra post about this site. www.artpad.art.com It is an interactive site where students can engage and play with art skills and when you are done it will show you all of the strokes and things you did to complete the picture. You can paint, splash paint on, etc. You can view the gallery and share your pictures as well.

BP12_20091115_Web2.0ToolsComment1

BP9_2009112_Web 2.0#3

Sketchfu

Today’s education system is made up of students who love math, language, phys ed, music and art. In most cases, wherever a students’ passion falls, they have an outlet available to them that allows them to express their interests. If you love phys ed you can join a sports team, if you love math you can become a mathlete, etc.

Sketchfu is an online application that allows budding artists to express themselves. Providing an online outlet to share their work with others. Not only does this forum allow the students to practice their talents, but they also are able to put their work on display and vulnerable for critique.

This tool could be used in a number of different ways in the classroom. Students could break into groups, and each group be assigned a different story to read. Once the story is read, each member of the group could be in charge of creating a picture that is associated with a part of the story. Groups will have to work together to make sure that all images associated with the story are cohesive, and match the overall theme of the story.

Art teachers could utilize this tool to hold contests on which student can create the most unique and engaging picture.

BP11_20091115_Web2.0Tools

Screenshot of Web Poster Wizard by Hardy Reeves

Altec. (2000-2009). Web Poster Wizard. Copyright Altec at the University of Kansas. Retrieved November 10, 2009 from http://wizard.4teachers.org

This tool is very cool. I have been to http://wizard.4teachers.org/ before, but for their other free products, such as: rubistar, a rubric maker, Assign-A-Day, post your own online class calendar, and Casa notes-take home notes in English and Spanish. When I went searching for Web 2.0 tools today, I found Web Poster Wizard, an online poster making program.

There are several items of interest for this site. First, they say it is to make a very simple webpage in minutes, which it does. Teachers are able to create classes of students and then create worksheets and assignments for them to complete, a very simple Course Management System, but it doesn't stop there. Students are able to access a student site and either work on the assignments or create an online poster. This feature, the online poster, is what really got me excited.

We use teacher generated posters to learn material and then I have students generate posters as a group for review practices and checking for content mastery. What this site does is allow students to work as a group and collaborate on a poster that they will present online. Students login and add titles, paragraphs of information, pictures (and they must cite where they got the picture from), and urls for sites they would like other students to visit. This just made a poster activity in the classroom something that all students with an internet connection at home, are able to access and study there instead of just in the classroom.

For my class, we are wrapping up a unit in science on Physical/Chemical Reactions, Physical/Chemical Properties, etc. I already know that they will be working together with a partner to create an online poster to present to the class to review the concepts from this unit.

BP10_2009118_Reflective Media Asset

Just a couple of quick reasons on why www.yacapaca.com is used in my classroom.

BP9_2009118_Web 2.0 tools Response

Screenshot by Hardy Reeves

Here is the post and comment from Telitha Lucier's blog:

So for my latest assignment I had to research and write about a web 2.0 tool that I could use in my job. I looked at all of the offerings that the site had and not many of them had implications for my teaching. In the end I found that Storybird was a great site because it allows me to create books and publish information for my classes. I was able to use it to create a short child-like storybook about biomes. A biome is a specific type of habitat or environment like a desert or a mountain region.My freshman class will be looking at biomes in this upcoming chapter and I thought this might be a great way to introduce it to them. To view the book, click the link below.

http://storybird.com/books/the-biomes-of-the-world/

I think that this is a very useful website and I plan on sharing it with my coworkers. I find this useful in a couple of different ways. As I’ve mentioned before I work in a school that was founded to specifically cater to dyslexia and similar learning differences. In my school there are two English classes that each student takes every day. The first is titled Language Training. In this class the students learn how to make sense of the English language and how to spell. The second English class that each student takes is called Literature and Composition. As the name implies this is much more of the classical English class. The students read books and write reports. I can see Storybird being used in the Literature and Composition class as an alternative way for the students to write their book reports. I can also see it being used in a class like History or Science, which I teach. In my classes I might use Storybird so that the students can create a book about what they’ve been learning – this could be in place of a weekly quiz. I can also see implications for the use of Storybird when it comes to longer writing projects, specifically in my Freshman Science class. I’m rather pleased with this new resource that I’ve found.

Artwork by:

Agocs, Irisz. Retrieved from http://storybird.com/iriszagocs/ on November 2, 2009.

BP8_2009118_Web 2.0 tools 3

Screenshot by Hardy Reeves

Thing labs. (2009) Plinky. Retrieved November 8, 2009 from www.plinky.com

With the Web 2.0 tools link I found Plinky, an online writing journal of sorts.

In the classroom, I can see this being used in two different ways. First, in my current classroom, I will use Plinky to come up with the daily writing prompt. Each day a new prompt is added to your homepage and then you are able to respond to it there however you want. In my classroom, students would be able to write their responses to the prompt in their journal. The ideas are very basic and easy for a fifth grade student to understand and write a decent response to. Finally, following their format, students would share out their responses to a partner or the class. Secondly, if I had access to a class set of computers (or the students all had access to computers with an internet connection) I would the class sign up for a Plinky account and follow each other. This would allow for students to make comments about the writings and also a chance for students to be a community of writers, not afraid to let others see what they have written.

You can visit Plinky at: http://www.plinky.com

BP7_2009118_Web 2.0 tools 2

Screenshot image by Hardy Reeves

Woopid Video Tutorials. (2009). Woopid. Retrieved November 8, 2009 from www.woopid.com

After going to the Web 2.0 tools link, I found Woopid. Woopid is a tool for educators to use either for themselves or for the classroom. They are movies on how to do just about anything with your computer and for any type of operating system. I can see myself using this tool in several different ways. When trying to learn how to use a new application I tend to tinker around with it and only go to the directions when I've become stuck on how to make the program do what I want or I think, "There has to be an easier way!" With Woopid I will be able to do that quickly.

Secondly, the instructions are very basic so I would be able to use this site as a "homework helper" with some of my students. If I have taught the class how to make a video in iMovie and students are absent, instead of having to go through and reteach them during our next scheduled computer lab time, I can have the students watch the video before we go in so that I don't have to keep running over to them and take time away from the rest of the class. Also, since the format is easy to understand, I have found it's model to be one that I would like to emulate when preparing my own How-to Screenflows.

Finally, with other teachers, I can refer this site to them to use since it is free. I know that Full Sail gave us a subscription to Lynda.com to use, but many school districts won't make that purchase for their employees to access. I can also search for a video for a colleague, upload it to my social bookmarking site and then have them access it whenever they need to by going to my social bookmarks.

To visit woopid: http://www.woopid.com/

BP6_2009118_Web 2.0 tools 1

Screenshot picture by Hardy Reeves

Yacapaca! (2009). Chalkface Project. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.yacapaca.com/

Yaca Paca! is a tool that I will actually start using with my classroom on Monday (November 9th). While searching through the Web 2.0 tools, I found this site and started playing with it. This "course management system" allows teachers to connect to other lessons created on the site and create their own. Through the use of flash based multiple "test" questions, students demonstrate their knowledge of lessons presented in the classroom. These "tests" give students immediate feedback based on their answer. Teachers can limit the number of times that a student takes the "test". The neat feature of these "tests" is that the question order changes each time it is accessed students truly need to understand what the answer to a question is, not

just memorize the question/answer order (question 1 might be question 5 the next time it is accessed). Yaca Paca! also tracks student grades and allows them to see how they are doing in the online portion of a the class.

Yaca Paca! can be found at: http://yacapaca.com/

BP4_2009118_SocialBookmarking

What is social bookmarking? In his article, Dr. Lomas stated that, "Social bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public website and "tagging" them with keywords" (Lomas, 2005, pg. 1).

Social bookmarking allows an educator to create an account where they can access their favorite websites anywhere they have access to a computer and the internet. Educators are able to work at their home computer to find websites that they would like to use in the classroom and then add them to their social bookmarking page, just like saving a bookmark to your bookmark or favorites folder. The benefit of using the social bookmarking website, is that instead of having to bring in your computer or email yourself a link to the site, you can access your social bookmarking site in your classroom and present the site to your students or send the link to your students.

While this function alone would be enough for many educators, Rebecca Hedreen stated in her blog that the "real meat of the services, however, is 'tagging'" (Hedreen, 2005). Tagging allows users to add keywords to the link on the site. When a site would cover more than one area you would like to teach, instead of creating different files or folders, you would add keywords to the link that you would be able to search for later. This process allows you to mark a website for many different lessons, as well as, allowing other users to find it easier. These tags can then be used to look for similar tags from other people, allowing the user to narrow their search to only those related fields.

A final benefit of social bookmarking is that it allows users to work together easier. According to Rodd Lucier, "people can subscribe to your bookmark by RSS" (Lucier, 2008). Rather than just sending a link to your social bookmarking site to your coworkers and then having them regularly checking it, by adding a RSS feed to their information will update them whenever a new link is added to your site. This enables groups to work together efficiently. Group members would not have to send out an email message or posting to the other members. Also, when creating a social bookmarking site as a group, members can update links either through their own sites or through a shared site.

Through these three features, it is apparent that social bookmarking adds an increased level of interaction in group work, delivery of instruction, and efficiency in use.

References

Hedreen, R. (2005, February 3). Social bookmarking in education. Retrieved November 11, 2009 from http://frequanq.blogspot.com/2005/02/social-bookmarking-in- education.html

Lomas, C.P. (2005, May). 7 things you should know about social bookmarking. Retrieved November 11, 2009 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

Lucier, R. (2008, January 8). Social bookmarking in the classroom. Retrieved November 11, 2009 from http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/01/social-bookmarking-in-classroom.html

BP5_2009118_FlickrLessonPlan

Screenshot of lesson plan from interfaceonline by Hardy Reeves

Interface Magazine Online. (2009) Retrieved November 8, 2009 from http://www.interfaceonline.co.nz/downloads/INTERFACE%20Lesson%20Plan%2042%20-%20Five%20Card%20Flickr%20Story.pdf

The lesson I was found was using the website:

http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/flickr.php

The site uploads five random images, you choose one and then it will upload five more random pictures until you have five pictures total. Using these five pictures you then create a title for the picture story and a short description.

I would use this activity to have students create a full story to share with the class using the five pictures. We would start as a class activity and focus on word choice and transitions. In fifth grade, one of the concepts that I focus on is word choice especially adjectives. This lesson gives students the opportunity to work on these skills, especially since they will be working with random pictures. After we have completed the activity as a class, I would then have groups or partners complete the activity.

More free lesson plans can be found at:

http://www.interfaceonline.co.nz/lesson_plans.cfm

BP3_2009112_Web2.0_Tools

Screenshot by Hardy Reeves

Edmodo (2009). Edomodo.com. Education 2.0 - Edmodo - Free private social platform for education. Retrieved November 2, 2009, from http://www.edmodo.com/

I chose to evaluate edmodo as my Web 2.0 tool. I had heard about edmodo from a previous class and had setup an account to see what it was about and hadn't worked with it since September.

Going back to edmodo I have found it to be similar to our own FSO site. I am able to post assignments, have specific sections of students, allow students to interact with their classmates, and send out grades. What I really enjoyed about this website is it's ease of use. I tried out both sides of the site, teacher and student. The teacher side is very intuitive and there are many FAQ's that help work through any issues you may have. Also, there is a feed on the teacher page that shows answers to questions or posts about how to use edmodo better. On the student side, adding my class and posting assignments was very easy.

I will start using this site on Thursday with my homeroom class. They will start off by just setting up their own page and adding a comment to our class page. After that, I will start adding assignments students will need to complete. I have the ability to add documents for them to download and work on, sites for them to visit, and add a poll (or mini-quiz) for students to complete online. I envision setting it up similar to our own FSO and having students turn in work through it while in the computer lab and if they have the capability at home. While this tool is available to enhance student learning, it will not be the only way for them to turn in work. The possibilities edmodo open up are endless, but the main goal for incorporating it with my students is teaching them how to interact with this type of tool and open up their world to what they are capable of accomplishing.

BP2_2009111_iGoogle_Homepage

BP1_2009111_Google_Reader

I chose the following:

YahooEducation: Word of the day-

We are currently working on vocabulary instruction on our campus. Along with the set word we are supposed to teach, this site will give me access to a new word each day that I can then decide to either add to our vocabulary list.

NYT>Education, LA Times>Education & NPR Topics: Education

Both sites have interesting articles on education and this will allow me to briefly jump over, read and then either share with others or just file for later use. It is also something that I like to just keep up with, especially since one of my partners in fifth grade listens and reads to NPR and always asks me if I have-now I have an easy way to say, yes! Also, I with the NYT and LA Times I can see what other schools are doing in different areas and if there is a way to modify it for my area.

CA Dept of Education

I teach in California and it just made sense that I should stay up-to-date with the ideas being sent out by our Department of Education.

Finally-a lot of Classroom Response Systems Articles

My Action Research is the use of Classroom Response Systems 0r Clickers and their use and engagement in the classroom. A quick search allowed me to pull articles to add to my Literature and also some insight on how others have used it in the classroom.