Thing 23

We certainly have covered a lot of material over the last several months. One thing I learned is that I needed to keep better track of my usernames and passwords. I rarely use g-mail, so I created accounts based on whether I thought I would use the sites personally or professionally ... now I have to consult my "cheat sheet" every time I want to log in!

Watching the video from Thing 1 again was interesting. I did wonder initially about how different the web could be. I always viewed the internet as a useful tool especially for research and just recreational "surfing" and reading articles. I was (and still basically am) a passive user, but I am trying to change and embrace Web 2.0 and this collaborative way of thinking.  That was an important theme in the video- that technology is changing. "The web is different . We are different"  It just takes some of us a bit longer to make those changes. It is difficult at times because searching, learning, and really using these technologies does take time, and sometimes there just isn't enough time. There have been  several lessons  that I know some of this technology would work beautifully, but with the pace of the curriculum and personal demands (and the need for some recreational time) I do find it hard to incorporate because of the time it takes. I will keep trying though!

For better or worse, our students are born and raised in this Web 2.0 world and this is the way that they seem to be most engaged... through collaborative digital methods. Not everything  in the curriculum  can be replaced with digital education, but it can certainly enhance some units. It is frustrating that the  majority of students (and many adults)  are so dependent on their devices and so willing to share every little detail about their lives or any personal creation, However, the trend is sharing and collaboration and it is true that students are more likely to create a better product if they know it will be shared "publicly" and not just read by the teacher.  Maybe this will improve student performance if they get more excited about the final product being shared.

In terms of classroom use, I plan to continue using a wiki for specific projects. If Edline does have a wiki feature in the future, it is something I will explore.  I am using Dropbox  more frequently, and plan to upload most of my school files to Dropbox this summer (I ran out of time earlier!) Delicious his useful for coordinating bookmarks both for school and personal purposes. If I can familiarize myself more with Prezi, I think students would like that as a way to present. I hope to incorporate the Science Friday "vodcasts" as warm-ups next year.  I would also like to brush up on my French (for no particular reason- just for fun) and the podcasts on iTunes will be helpful.

Learning about new web 2.0 tools will come from Mashable, consulting  my sons and students, and through staff development  like 23 Things. I enjoyed learning about all that is available, and although I will not use all of it, I will definitely use some. Thank you for your help and encouragement! 

Thing 22

I did try the link to the google site and tried to edit it the other night, but it did not have the option to edit. I did read through the teacher, student, and parent suggestions and there were quite a few that I will keep in mind. I was not as persistent as Jim, however, in trying to edit and add to the list and I gave up.  I have been on other wikis before that members of my team have created and I have edited them, so I am familiar with the process.

Below is a link to a wiki I started for a project done this year with students. I just sent emails inviting you in case to you want to look at some of the links to additional pages. We did a team project called IF Activist and divided students on the team into groups, assigned a topic, and had them choose sides. Our topic, as you can see by the wiki, has to do with a mandatory DNA database for all residents of our new country, Independent Fairfield. The project is based on a unit started by Paul Schluntz and Tom Everett "back in the day", but it has been updated and recently under Tim Ley's guidance, we have used pbworks wikis. 

http://dnadatabase2011.pbworks.com/w/page/36998733/Mandatory-DNA-Database

I initially set up the page and divided students into the Watsons and Cricks. Links to note taking sheets and helpful documents were provided, as well as a few guiding research questions and websites. I also gave each student a link to his or her own page to post information. From there, students ran with it. I took a gamble and gave them all editor privileges, and they were actually quite good about doing the right thing. Most of the students enjoyed using the wiki. It allowed them to collaborate, and check the progress of their teammates. There were student moderators who were also in charge of touching base with all team members. These very responsible moderators also posted their own links and kept a team work cited for the project. I enjoyed having the wiki for the project as well, once it was set up.

At the beginning, students in my group were invited to the wiki and given passwords, so only they could work on it. It was not available to the general public. I could received e-mails about updates, and I could check page history if there were any problems. There was a bit of friendly banter between student moderators after the fact- when they accompanied our team to the Tech Expo this spring.

It seems to me that a blog would be more for comments and editorials, and the information is shown in chronological order, with the latest entries visible and older posts are not. It seems more like the online journal of one person, with comments by others possible. A wiki appears to be better suited to class projects from what I have seen. It is like a website that "belongs" to many with editing rights.

Thing 21

It seems to me that wikis may be used almost like a class website or for a specific project that involves student collaboration. The example given in the video on how wikis work made it seem at first that it was similar to using google docs for collaboration, but it is much more than that. I have seen that wikis can be wonderful collaborative tools and kids seem to enjoy using them.

After glancing at the wikis listed, I viewed many examples of collaborative wikis. One that impressed me was Mr. Wildeboer's Integrated Science wiki from Fitch High School in Groton, CT. The original wiki listed is no longer actively used, but there was a link to his new wiki (or maybe a website). http://www.mrwfitch.com/

The site is attractive, well organized, and seems relatively easy to navigate. I like the tabs he has at the top of the page for parents, grading, social media, etc. along with links to his classes to the left. There are links to many documents,  his Twitter feed, and to YouTube, where he has Mr. W Fitch Science Channel. It is pretty impressive to me.

Hurdles that stand in the way of doing something like that- time and lack of skill. It looks like it takes a lot of time and know-how to set up and then maintenance would be difficult. I have enough trouble keeping my edline pages up to date! There seems to be so much more to do from the standpoint of the classroom teacher, and less time to get it done. I actually looked into creating a class wiki last summer on pbworks (several of my team members have their own sites) but when reminded of edline coming our way, I decided to put it off. I am not sure there is a need for both now that edline is being used in the district. I do see wikis being valuable for certain collaborative projects. I have used them a few times , and I hope the one I created this spring on pbworks can be used for Thing 22.

Thing 20

While doing Thing 19, I actually completed Thing 20. I used all three search tools suggested and found that I liked iTunes to search and manage podcasts the best.

When I first looked at EPN, I thought it looked like an outdated website. I explored some of the features and I liked the background information it provided. I also liked that it had middle and secondary school and student podcasts available. I did not find the site very user-friendly, however.

Podcast alley was a bit more user friendly for me, and there was a wide variety of podcast from which to choose. Using the genre menu was helpful, but I still found it somewhat difficult tonavigate.

iTunes was the easiest to navigate and manage for me. I like the visual aspect of the website, the podcast quick links menu, and the choice of audio or visual podcast types. Another feature I found helpful were the user reviews that accompany each podcast. The reviews were easy to find and helped eliminate a few of the podcasts that looked good, but were weak on content or boring. Having podcasts easily displayed in my podcast library is also a plus for me.

From iTunes, I did subscribe to the three I mentioned in Thing 19: Science Friday vodcast, Science Times, and How Stuff Works: Stuff to Blow Your Mind. I still need more time to sort through all of them!

Thing 19

There were so many podcasts from which to choose- I do not know where to start. I looked through so many on iTunes and educational sites. There were podcasts on French lessons that I may listen to this summer just for the heck of it. There were plenty of other languages too News, health, medicine, technology also available as you know.

I tried to focus on the science content and find a few that my students might find interesting. It takes quite a bit of time to filter through them, read reviews, and  choose what might work with eighth graders.

One podcast that I might try to incorporate next year is called Science Friday from NPR.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/science-friday-video-podcast/id220281403

  It is actually a series of  "vodcasts" that are 3-5 minutes in length and they might be good for "warm-ups" that lead to class discussion. There are many other podcasts available, but with lengths of 40-45 minutes, I am not sure our adolescent visual learners could stay tunes that long. Another couple are HowStuffWorks http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stuff-to-blow-your-mind/id350359306

       The Science Times. http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=120316173
Both have podcasts that runs 20-40 minutes, with a wide variety of subjects. I am still trying to figure out exactly how to use them.... perhaps  as HW assignments when related to the current curriculum, or as enrichment for interested students.

Thing 18

I like the way there have been so many options presented for us to look through and then decide what we might want to use. A looked through Slideshare, Faculte, and Prezi. I had actually looked over Prezi earlier in the course at Skip's suggestion. I think it is interesting and a creative new way for kids to make presentations. I need to become more familiar with it myself before turning it over to the students. Maybe not, though. They will probably pick it up quickly and run with it! To me, it is all over the place with the zooming in and out, but I think the kids would like it because it has more "energy" than a typical PowerPoint presentation.

Speaking of PowerPoint presentations, I found that SlideShare had plenty of presentations to offer and some will be useful in the classroom. I did find a couple to share. We do a quick unit on Electricity and Magnetism (jammed in there between Genetics and Amusement Park Physics) This slide show reviews many of the things we cover ( with a good mix of text and illustrations - a bit long though).

Electricity and Magnetism - Basic Concepts

View more presentations from KANNAN

Earlier in the year, we do a unit on Bridges and study bridge types, design, and the forces acting on them before building toothpick bridges. The next slide show is set to music and just shows some beautiful examples of bridge architecture.

Beautiful Bridges Around the World

View more webinars from Ren's Creations

It is nice to find some presentations already made to share with students, and have them accessible from home if they miss it in class.

Thing 17

There were quite a few "online productivity tools" to explore! There were a few that interested me, and one that I plan to incorporate next year with students.

I signed up for an account on Rememeber the Milk. Perhaps it will help me stay organized and keep track of tasks better. In addition, 30 boxes was interesting and I can see its tremendous potential. I signed up and started entering events. I like the features it offers, like linking to flikr and your area for local weather. Repeating events, coordinating with others...it seems like it will be veey useful one I can fully set it up.

The site I will use professionally is Proprofs.com, to generate flashcards. I explored several of the sets already created and then created a set of 25 flashcards for our recent Genetics unit. The website could also be shared with students and they could make their own flashcard sets. Benefits are that it is a common middle school review method for some quizzes and it would eliminate using note cards. Students will like it better than the traditional method. I see no dangers in this tool. One danger in general would be becoming too dependent on these online tools.

Thing 16

Google docs seems like it is a very useful tool. It seems very much like Dropbox because both are stored on the cloud. I guess the main difference is that google docs is for documents and Dropbox can store anything (music, video, pictures) Do I have that right?

I liked that google docs indicated that you can now upload entire folders, although I have not done it yet. It will also be nice not to have to e-mail things to myself or others and have multiple versions.

In terms of using it to collaborate with colleagues at school, it could be helpful. My grade level colleagues and I share almost every lab and document we create or revise. Now it is done by putting folders on the S drive at school, which works well when we are at school. It does not work if we want to access something from home, which is where google docs would work nicely.

For student work, collaborating on lab reports would be helpful. There are also projects for which students create brochures and combined work cited. They would be able to access their work from any computer and make changes, provide feedback to each other, etc. It can boost productivity because of this, and the fact that they can publish their work for a wider audience. Work can be easily shared with peers and parents.