There are so many ways to publish online it is hard to decide what is best for your students. It will take some time to decide as you can do each of the aspects f the publishing. You can then decide what tools are best for your students. Flipped Classroom The flipped classroom I have discussed previously and really enjoy the idea of it. I have watched videos on the flipped classroom and they are awesome. It is engaging and fun. As a teacher it is fun as well as you get to create a video about what needs to be taught. The next day the students know what they need to do and they can do it. There is not a long period of time teaching and reteaching aspects that need to be taught. The teaching is done and now it is time to facilitate. This video is one of many of a teacher using the flip classroom and how successful it can be with the students. I really enjoyed this way of teaching and how it can benefit students.
Weebly Weebly has been a great tool for me during school but as well as in my classroom and at home. I have a small business that I was able to make a website for using weebly and it has taken my business to a new level. By publishing topics or aspects online it can deepen the learning of your students as well as engage them more in their own work. It is fun to make your own website and have it be the way you want. It is your creation and no one elses. You own it. It helps to bring out the aspects of learning that will take these students further. Digital Storytelling This is an aspect that I am not quite understanding as of yet. I am still learning more about it and how it will benefit my classroom. It seems as though it will use all aspects of technology and learning for the students. They will learn how to be creative and edit and really just make it their own while still learning writing and reading. This is an aspect of 21st century learner that is hitting the nail on the head. We want to focus on literacy and this is just that. Significant comments: http://macdougallj.weebly.com/blog/topic-seven-collaboration-cloud-computing#comments http://missclarke-davies.weebly.com/ed-4764/collaboration#comments
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Collaboration in the classroom is essential for students learning. It will teach them how to work with one another and to have a working relationship. This doesn't mean you have to love the person you are working with but you respect them and you work together to fulfil the required task. One aspect of collaboration in my classroom had to do with the use of Google Drive. I feel that this tool is awesome for collaboration as it gives you an opportunity to work together without having to be next to one another. During class time I would have students work with one another or a larger group creating a presentation. It is no longer just one person doing all the work on the presentation as they are the best at the powerpoints, but it is now possible for all to add and see what is going on in the presentation. They are able to add voice memos, videos, and other sorts of technology more simply than before. Simply put Google Drive seems like it was created strictly for the classroom. The next aspect of collaboration that I really enjoyed and learned about was the PLC groups in the division I was working in. Every month we would get together as a group for instance all the Social 7 teachers would get together as a group and discuss what is being taught in their classrooms. They would then come up with a common test for the next chapter and discuss the questions. Were they good questions, did they assess according to the outcomes or were they just questions to stump the students. We wanted each student to have a fair and equal chance at succeeding and so we collaborated together to do just that.
When we were finished creating the test and its questions we would have the answer key and we would go back to our classrooms and students. The next month we would not get together and meet face to face but we would do a hangout video call. In this call we would discuss the test and how our students did. We would discuss what questions they struggled with or which questions we felt we really didn't cover good enough. It was and excellent way to help us as teachers and to better us as students of technology and collaboration. With the results from our tests we could then produce a Google form which would be shared between all of us and we could learn from each other. Overall it was an excellent way to work together for the greater good of our students. http://www.chatfieldpublicschools.net/district/Documents/PLC%20Framework.pdf This article discusses the importance and strengths of the learning communities and how it can strengthen any school and it's students. I really enjoyed it and hope you do to. Google hangout is a wonderful tool that could be used for so much in the classroom. You could record yourself giving a lesson and send it to the students as homework. This is called a flip classroom which is a great idea for the upcoming project based learning. Another aspect that could be of use in the classroom is a group project that the students will use Google hangouts in the classroom with another class from a different city or even country. This could be beneficial to the students as they get to see a different perspective on the topic they are discussing or learning about. This could also be used for teachers learning from each other. You could have a discussion with a number of teachers on ideas they had with certain topics, or test questions, or what aspects of certain lessons or objectives they found their students struggled with. Simply put it is a great communication tool that will benefit learning all around. It could be used for those students that do not feel as comfortable speaking in front of a class so they could record themselves and present that in class with limited talking. Mary Beth Hertz, an elementary school teacher in Pennsylvania had the idea for students in elementary school to be using hangouts for a multi-class book club. The students can use the hangout to discuss what they read the previous week and what was interesting to them. This is an excellent idea for the younger grades and will be so much fun for them to see other students they may know or even get to know through the hangout.
Some aspects of concern will be the privacy issues. Some parents may not like their children being online looking at another person face to face. Or if they were to use this tool at home it is a issue with privacy in the home. As Ken discussed in the hangout it was awkward for him to do as he could see right into some peoples bedroom. This is an issue of privacy. It could also lead to other issues with cyber bullying or inappropriate behaviour. All of these issues can be avoided through being proactive in your teaching. Teach the students about hangout and why it is a great tool. Work with them using the hangout, but most of all be smart with the hangout. Talk to parents, administration, and the students about hangout and why it is a great tool in the classroom. When parents hear about this there will not be many that are against the use in the classroom, thus enhancing the learning and experience. References http://www.edutopia.org/blog/educators-schools-google-hangouts-mary-beth-hertz Significant Comments: http://calewinterneted.weebly.com/blog/topic-5-communication-iii#comments http://zacharyrhodes.weebly.com/ed-4764-blog/reflection-5#comments While I have been reflecting on communication over the past couple of topics it has occurred to me a couple of times that as a society we are starting to go away from conversation and entering rehearsal. By this I mean in a conversation one can talk with another with some aspect of surprise. By having a asynchronous conversation it is rehearsed, you are able to think about what you are going to say. I can't count how many times I have to rewrite a text as it was not exactly what I wanted to say. Again I go back to what my co-worker said, he feels that if he were in today's younger generation he would be able to pick up any girl that he wanted. The young men now days don't need the "swagger" that he had to have.
I had never used Twitter until PSI. I didn't really understand how it was used, why it was used, and overall how it would benefit me. But I came to a quick realization that it could be used so well in the classroom. This came easily apparent to me when I heard Jared Heidenger talk about his twitter experience. This was such a great idea to use for his students and their homework. It is also such a good tool to find ideas for teaching and learning in the classroom. It gives students the opportunity to use it at home and discover new things about the content as well as themselves while doing research and reflection. Youtube is also another great tool for the classroom. I have used it in my classroom to teach lessons, to help students remember content, and to simply engage them in the lesson. Like the article said it is speaking their language. It also gives me an opportunity to load the lessons onto youtube and teach a flipped classroom. The students could then respond to a question via twitter, the possibilities are limitless through the vast social media we have at our disposal. Significant Comments http://elykremlapfitness.weebly.com/teaching-blog/communication-ii#comments http://michelleosborneblog.weebly.com/journal/communication-ii#comments I first want to comment on Jennifer Deyenburg and her journey with technology and innovation. I really liked what she said early on in the interview about how and why she started using her blog and writing the good things she has done, but most interesting enough the bad things as well. When I first heard her say that I was wondering why she did so, then it hit me. When you do something in the classroom that failed you begin to assess why it did. You can come up with different ideas that will potentially make it better for the next time. Posting it you will get 10x more ideas that would have never crossed your mind. Every mind is different, every teacher is different, and every lesson is different, with this in mind the potential of the lesson succeeding in the future is heightened dramatically. It also shows she is a great teacher as she is always wanting to learn. We as teachers are not perfect the more we realize that and accept help the more perfect we become.
The next aspect of her interview I really liked was the lesson on weather. Hearing her talk about it I kept thinking to myself I want to be in this lesson learning these things from her. When I think of weather just off the top of my head I start to fall asleep it is boring to me, but the way she used technology to heighten this lesson was incredible. I mostly liked how it was instant. The students were able to get weather notifications from all over the world. They were getting personal notifications which would increase their engagement in the lesson as well as their learning. I guarantee they will not forget the lesson they learned about weather that day. Internet chat can be a useful tool for sure, but there are a lot of draw backs that can deter one from using the tool. It is the best of both worlds asynchronous and synchronous communication. It gives the face to face communication but alone physically, you have time to think about what you want to say without it being awkward. As discussed in the article it can be dangerous and risky without knowing the person on the other side, but in response being a teacher using someone to video chat that you know or have communicated with previously will counter act the previous concern. Significant Comment: http://justinedespins.weebly.com/ed-4764---the-internet-and-education/communication-1#comments Communication is of utmost important in our society. It is how we get to know one another, it is how we show what we want, and it is the aspect that separates us from the animals. For instance I have a 2 year old son that is learning to talk and it is so frustrating for him when we are not able to understand what he wants. He gets mad, sad, and frustrated all because he can not communicate.
With that in mind I am old enough to have seen the asynchronous communication come into the world. I remember msn, which seemed to be one of the first synchronous that I can remember without face to face or a phone call. I remember email coming into my life and how it was used. I actually still have my first email account I ever setup, the name is ridiculous but hey I was young. The main aspect that I want to talk about is asynchronous communication and how it is such a great tool for those that do not like to talk in class, or are too embarrassed to talk. It is often that they have some of the most interesting and thought provoking thoughts. Like a flip classroom in some of today's classes. This allows the students to answer questions or write mini essays on what they learned in the video. This is amazing it will give so many students the opportunity to express themselves. Especially for those that are not well spoken and can seem to never get the words out of their head the way they want. I believe this is an amazing tool that has been created for us in our classrooms, but their are down falls as well. Our face to face communication, I feel, has gone down hill. How often do we talk on the phone any more? Students because of the mass amount of asynchronous communication our synchronous communication is fading. You don't use it you lose it. So moving forward I believe that it is important for us as teachers to use both aspects of communication and ensure our students still know how to talk to each other. To begin I had no idea research on the internet could get that advanced. I was always under the impression that the more words you put in the search engine the less results you will have thus leading you away from what you wanted to find in the first place. But no I was wrong again, as my spouse would say.
I have always been a superficial researcher on the internet and have never really thought much about it, but after reading this article I realize that I could be doing so much better with my research and saving so much more time. Recently I have been researching house plans as I want to be building a home in the next year or so, and I continue to struggle to find exactly what I am looking for on Google. I always find aspects that I want but never exactly what I am looking for. Now that I have read this article I feel that when I am done this blog that I can go ahead and research exactly what I am looking for and it will be there, I hope. When I was teaching a Social 7 class in one of my practicums I was having the students write a critical essay and presentation on representations of First Nations people in the media. Most of the students were having trouble finding anything that would help them fulfill the requirements of the assignment through their research. So I continued to tell the class what they needed to search. By doing so the students were able to find what they were looking for and were more engaged in the assignment. This taught me a huge lesson about teaching as well as understanding what your students are capable of. My students had never really spent time on the internet researching before, and thus struggled with finding content. Now that I have read the article I realize that what I should have done to start the class before I had them start their own research is I should have taught them how to research on the internet. I never had anyone teach me how to search, which would explain why I am content with the superficial aspects of my research. If I want my students to be engaged they need to have success with their research. It is the same with sports, I am a sports fanatic thus I may correlate the two. If kids are learning a sport it is essential that the skill they are being taught is successful 1/3 of the time, if they want to stay playing the sport. If a skill is too difficult the children will just quit and find something they can succeed at. I feel the same is with the internet, and researching. Students must see success in their research and be able to use this research for their specified assignments. We want the students to be engaged in their learning. If they are it is fun and if it is fun it will be lifelong. Significant Comment: http://marywauters4764.weebly.com/blog/history-of-the-internet#comments http://myeducationpath.weebly.com/reflections-for-tech/history-of-my-internet#comments The Internet became a new thing to me when I was around the age of 10. I had just moved for the first time and remember my old computer we would go on in the basement. It was huge and had the old disc drives with the floppy disc as well as the hard disc. I didn't feel at the time that this would change many things in my life but as time went on this thought quickly changed.
We started using the computers more often at school to search for things or do some sort of work on. The computers we had then were the old Macs that were different colours, I'm sure most everyone knows which ones I'm talking about. As I got older the Internet or World Wide Web became more useful and interesting to myself and to some of my teachers. We started doing research, looking at videos, watching videos over and over and over again without having to record it. I remember coming home asking my parents questions about homework that I had on the Internet and it was like talking Russian to them, they didn't understand a thing. This told me right away that I, in school, was in unchartered territory for them. They didn't know how this new thing was used. All they knew was how dangerous it could be, and as such they would limit my time on the computer. This was a good thing as it still allowed me to keep my interests in sports and fun outside the house instead of sitting on my couch playing computer games . This I do thank my parents for as it for,Ed me into the hard working person I am today. Is this trend changing though? Are kids becoming more lazy because of the Internet and its many tools? In my opinion it has I feel kids are less focused on sports now days then they were when I was in school. I feel that they are learning more and more at a younger age which then puts them ahead of the generation before them, thus allowing them to go further in life, whether it be good or bad. I feel that interaction has changed dramatically. As a co-worker of mine said, he wishes he had texting when he was younger he could have had so many more dates with girls. For myself I didn't feel my communication changed much during school, but now the communication has lessened and almost seems hard to find conversation at times. Overall I believe the Internet has brought us so far as a society and as teachers, yet I do believe that it still must be used carefully. It will help us as well as destroy us if we let it. |