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