Monday, July 6, 2009
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Congratulations for signing up successfully! I hope there will be many interesting discussions displayed in this platform. We're going to have a fantastic class!! Please post a quick example of how have you seen technology used successfully in your school setting in the last year so I know you have successfully registered for this blog and know how to post.
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19 comments:
I am excited about what we will learn in this class!
I work in student support, so my examples are not classroom examples. I help students with senior projects, and the most helpful tool for me in that context has been the fact that students can e-mail drafts of their work to me on days I don't meet with them, so that I can get feedback to them more quickly.
For the most part technology at my school comes in the form of Power Point slide shows. They are intriguing, but a little passe. I have worked with students to create a photo story show using images from the web and KidPix to create a show about the Anasazi. We have also used various tools to create our own poetry books.
Mark Richards
I used a blog to communicate with my students when I was in Vietnam. You can see it here: http://sgsdragon.blogspot.com/
Rachel
Hello all ... We have a couple of English teachers who have used blogs very succesfully for their classes. I am looking forward to adding a blog for my Debate class; it seems as if it would be a natural fit.
Powerpoint is about the extent that I've seen used successfully in the classroom. I see a lot of room for growth!!!
I always do a poetry unit in March and it's very difficult to format the text for the flip books that we make. This year the technology teacher helped me to format the small pages that the boys write their poems on. It worked beautifully.
I always have my students write a letter of introduction to give to their teachers for the following school year. It is a way of introducing themselves to their new teacher, telling them about some of their interests, both in and out of school, basically, "I'm a cool kid, and by the way I have a hearing loss...." This year, instead of having a handwritten letter to pass on to the teachers, I had most of my students make audio podcasts from the letters that we scripted initially. I am so excited about this, and so were they!
My colleague wrote a grant for flip cameras so that we could take them on our class field trip to UW. Students and teachers documented our experiences that day and then students edited the footage in their info tech class. We displayed a compilation of their clips set to music during their 8th grade promotion ceremony. It was neat!
First of all, I am very excited about learning more about how to integrate technology to teach more effectively. My sister-in-law is a high school social studies teacher in NC and is an inspiration to me in using technology in the classroom. She uses both wikis and facebook with her students to promote classroom community and sharing information. Throughout the course (AP Comparative Government) students had to present several current events articles regarding various specific countries. My sister-in-law created a group on facebook for all the students to join, so whenever a question came up she only had to answer it once and everyone had the answer. She also linked several articles that she thought were pertinent to her facebook page and many students chose to use those articles to present to the class. Before presenting the article to the class the students had to post a summary and analysis of the article on the class wiki, so everyone could access the information. The wiki was then used at the end of the year to help review current events information that would possibly be on the AP exam.
Recently, I was looking at my sister-in-law's fb page and thought it was so cool to see students (who have graduated and are no longer in her class) get excited about an article they found and post a link on her fb page!
This last year I collaborated with a fourth grade teacher having students do research on a Social Studies project. One requirement was for students to credit their illustrations/pictures taken from the internet. I showed them how to cut and paste the information onto their pics. Doesn't seem like much, but it was a big project with only 6 computers in the library.
My school is new so we have Activ boards/Smart boards, but not in the library...? The teachers appreciate the technology and students are engaged in learning.
Mark - I would love to see some of these poetry books. The opportunities online for publishing student work is endless. Have you used VoiceThread before?
Rachel - Your blog is beautiful! I keep this one pretty basic, but yours shows everyone the potential using blogger.
Andy - I know our web design application, SchoolCenter, has a blog component. We've used it a little bit. There are many issues that surround using blogs with students that need to be thought through before getting started. Who posts? Moderated or not? Who can view? Open to the public or only via a sign-in, for examples.
Blogger is a little clunky. Other blogs may allow you to comment on comments and display separate threads. This one runs them all in a line. Just wanted to put that out there that I don't think it's the cat's meow necessarily.
I found my class wiki to be an effective tool with which my students and I could communicate among ourselves; students could access information, pathways, and assignments for various units of study; post to forums; and show off completed projects. I only built this during second semester, so all functionality has not fully been taken advantage of yet. http://lovinglearning.wetpaint.com. Prior to that I used the boring one the school had set up.
Hi Susan,
Love the wiki and the opportunity you're providing your students to contribute to the development of the class. How do you manage the student logins? Is it a closed environment? Do you approve the postings first?
Thanks! I had students sign up as members of the wiki; it is not a closed environment (something I need to consider changing); I am signed up as moderator.
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