Tools, Tools, Tools

Wow, there are so many great tools out there. I keep thinking that I’ve seen everything there is to see, but then someone comes up with another creative tool to help me in my classroom, or for private use. This week I tried Second Life, Time line tools (on Read, Write, Think) and SurveyMonkey.

Second Life:

Second Life seems like it would be a very neat tool to get kids excited about learning if they were in an off campus situation. I actually heard a speaker at a conference say he used his Second life to conduct virtual meetings. He said it was very interactive. In my experience, roaming around in the secondlife worlds was confusing and I would think that some kids might not appreciate the extra task of navigating in that world, but if the community of kids was made mainly of technologically savvy kids, I think it could be an interesting virtual classroom.

Time Line:

The timeline on Read, Write, Think was pretty simplistic, but sometimes that is just what I want. I thought I would use this tool to create timelines for application in the classroom for quick and simple activities. I thought it might be fun and useful to create a timeline of Odysseus’ travels while reading the Odyssey, or  I could see my office partner, and history teacher, asking students to make timelines in this program for each unit she teaches.

Survey Monkey:

Survey Monkey was so easy to use. I don’t actually give my students that many surveys, but I do know that I have to pass out surveys in my classes for other classes all the time. I’d like that to stop. It is distracting and takes precious time away from my lessons. If my co-workers set up surveys and then put something in the announcements kids could log on from home and take their surveys.  This would alleviate some of the nuisance to me and my fellow English teachers. I do see some problems with survey monkey. It  would be possible to fill out the survey more than once, and there would also be a large number of students who don’t go to fill out the survey at all, but this is a problem with all surveys. Researchers always have a margin of error and a number of unreturned surveys. Perhaps this will help students learn about statistics and how to decipher survey results.

Tweet or Text?

Because Twitter is a microblogging tool, I don’t really see setting myself using it for educational purposes. I like the idea that kids are practically married to their phones and Twitter could make talking to them pretty convenient.  I once assigned students to write a poetic text to a friend and then document the results. I suppose if students set up their twitter accounts for educational purposes, they might find it fun to communicate with each other on small tasks such as the one I assigned via text messaging, but in general, I think it is more exiting to them as a social network.

A Little Technology Infusion

I have used discussion forums in my classroom to host literature discussions and it is the best example of something I do that falls in line with David Warlick’s idea of a technological learning environment. I enjoy the fact that all students get to voice their opinion and that they ask their own very interesting questions. I also like that they defend their answers drawing other students’ attention to the text. Sometimes, not very often, they add links or refer each other to other books and sources. Discussions online have been able to put kids at the steering wheel. When I see that kind of interaction between students I get excited about them taking their education into their own hands. It shows that they realize that there is more to learn than what they are asked to learn. I think that any tools we can utilize that help students make these realizations are worth the time and energy for us and them.

Good Points

Alan November makes a few good points about how schools teach technology. I agree with his suggestions to teach about global empathy, social and ethnic responsibility, evaluating the validity of online information, and the level of permanence online.  

I think these skills are important at all levels. Whether kids are using technology or not, they can begin to understand the concept that we must treat each other with respect. Younger students can learn this lesson in the classroom before they ever touch a computer. As they polish their skills, students can begin to use technology based activities to practice their respectful skills. Older students can be taught about some of the negative consequences of using e-mail, texting, or social networks to be mean or disrespectful. The written word is powerful, and can be used against students in a powerful way.

Aside from using technology in an irresponsible way, kids to want to learn how to use it in a responsible way. I think that one thing I will focus on by the end of this school year is evaluating internet sources. Kids do believe that if they find it online, it is probably true, which obviously isn’t the case. I think I might set out to find contradicting research and discuss how something like that can happen. Kids need to see some proof. Also, I would like to remind them of some of the ways they can verify information that they think is true by triangulating, looking for author names, looking for works cited information, finding information on sites that are considered trustworthy and things like that. I already discuss this in my classroom, but I still wind up with students finding and using sites that have inaccurate information.

I heart technology...and I fear it.

I love technology. I do. Diigo and Delicious seem like two very useful tools…in the right hands. I love the way that you can take snapshots of the screen and save the images as html in Diigo. If the page you love gets updated or eliminated, you can still capture what you saw the first time you visited. I really think that is cool. I also like how you can save the page with highlighted text and annotations for future use.  This tool is genius.

Delicious seems handy, Diigo has more features, but if simplicity is attractive to you, Delicious is the way to go. I’m not completely in love with the way that web pages are organized, but I do like the premise of Delicious overall.

These  tool seems to have many advantages over the old paper and pen. I remember my research days at the Racine Public Library. I’d stand there with a pocket full of dimes to make photo copies, and then highlight, underline and annotate with (gasp) a PEN! I think if more students knew about this, we’d see it quickly become their best friend for research. They already use Microsoft Word to copy and paste important details. They save and print out their research…no dimes needed. I think once they discover this tool, they’ll even stop printing. As Ipads become more popular and affordable, we might slowly but surely see fewer pens and pencils in classrooms.

Every once in a while I fear technology. At first I was thinking that plagiarism might increase as a result of all these gadgets. I thougth that maybe kids would find it easier to copy and paste, or just collect links and not actually construct a research project, but with a little further contemplation on the subject, I’ve decided that that is silly.  If we asked students to add us to their social bookmarking sights we could monitor their use of websites. We could actually help them decide which websites were worthy and which are unworthy. As always, it is up to the student to use these tools responsibly and it is up to us to continue to teach research skills such as paraphrasing and citing research, so I guess I can’t condemn the tool for being completely handy and useful. I’m very excited to try them in my classroom

Someday Google Will Run the World.

I’ve always loved it as a search engine, but I’m realizing now how innovative that company really is. I can see how google docs could be of great use for classrooms, businesses, and personal projects. Having heard of google docs, but not having used it, I was worried that it would be difficult to set up and difficult to communicate with. In our group assignment, we used traditional e-mail to communicate, but google docs to view and change our project. I really liked it. In the past, I’d have to meet with my group in person. That is can create scheduling difficulties. Once we’d meet face to face, we’d make small talk and then get to work. Inevitably, right when we started to make progress, someone would have to leave.

I liked google.docs because it was easy to use and VERY convenient, a serious time saver. When my group and I e-mailed, the correspondence was on the point, mostly business, and short. I also could revisit the old e-mails if I had questions, and any changes any group member made to the documents would be sent to individual e-mail accounts. My classmate even had her alerts sent to her phone so that she would know immediately if one of us was changing the documents or requesting help.  I loved it. I think there could be a number of classroom uses for the program as well. Students who can’t stay after school or have other obligations could work on presentations from anywhere at their own convenience.

Joining and Reading Other Wikis

I don’t know about these wikis. I like them…and I don’t.

I like the idea that people can collaborate on any given topic and come out with new ideas. One that I’ve found looks fairly interesting. http://teaching-with-technology.wikispaces.com/ has a number of pages on it centered around different types of technologies. People can go on and add other links they’ve found helpful. One page I’m particularly interested on this wiki is one for teachers who use ipads in education. I have recently purchased one for my classroom and really am looking forward to reading about other teachers. I requested to join the wiki…we’ll see if I have some things to offer to it in the future.

One problem that comes with wikis is that as multiple people have permission to edit, things could get changed or deleted accidentally. Also, in the wiki I’m in for a grant program, we meet a few times and work on the wiki at the same time. Our changes will cancel each other out if multiple people are viewing the page and changing it at the simultaneously. It becomes a problem. I wonder if a wiki is really the best tool for us to use in that situation.

As far as I can tell, joining the various wikis and using an RSS feed is tricky business. I’m beginning to feel fragmented with all the different memberships I’ve added since the beginning of this class. I especially like the RSS feed because it is a very easy way to see what others are blogging about, but I don’t love having to check the wikis separately.

Wiki vs. Blog

Blogs and Wikis are similar in that anyone can use them and anyone can comment. The major difference that I see between the two is that blogs are slightly more one sided. The author of the blog has his or her own agenda, begins conversations, and while people may make comments on the blog, it is the author of the blog who seems to have the control. Wikis are set up with collaboration in mind. Their focus is to give everyone an equal level of authorship.

When it comes to reading the blogs of others, I am more likely to read the blogs that are written in a friendly or personal tone. I like ones that may share some personal experience in the classroom, practical (and teacher tested) ideas, and advice.

I actually am part of a wiki for professional development. I am working with other teachers in CESA 2 to incorporate more technology in our classrooms. The coordinator for our program puts articles to read and activities to do on the wiki. Then we share the lesson plans/results of the lesson we tried using technology. Then we meet and discuss some of our challenges and triumphs. If I were to begin a wiki, I like the model she uses and think I would follow along those lines.