My experience with these new tools

Sometimes I can get a bit overwhelmed with all of the technology being introduced to me. With that being said, if I can just figure out a way to organize it all, it could make my life easier and more functional as a teacher. I tried three different tools this week: The Survey Monkey, Whyville, and picture and video sharing. I will outline my experience with them in the following paragraphs.

First I visited the world of Survey Monkey. This was a very useful activity as it is a simple and quick way to get feedback from students, staff and parents. I found Survey Monkey to be pretty user friendly but I feel that the Google Docs survey that I created (and have been using) was more user friendly and easier to work with. In general these survey tools are great not only because of the feedback you get, but also how the feedback is organized for you. This makes it much easier to utilize the data that you gather, rather than just stuffing it away into a file cabinet.

I was skeptical about Whyville before I visited the site. My first thoughts were reassured as I played with this tool. I do not doubt that there is educational value with this immersive world website; I just do not enjoy using these and do not think my student population (9-12 alternative school) would enjoy these activities. Although it was fairly easy to navigate through, it was a bit confusing as to where to go and what to do next. Faces kept on popping up in front of mine and it became a little frustrating. With all of that negativity, I do see that there could be educational value in a tool like this. With younger students and more time to play with it, I can see this tool engaging students in an educational activity in a creative and technological way.

Last I chose picture and video sharing. I did choose it because I am addicted to YouTube. No, not just to watch entertaining videos of people making fools of themselves; rather I have found that YouTube has endless information and references on it. I do understand there can be copyright issues with using the videos in class (at least that is what our library tech told me); but if I need quick information about a certain topic, I can find it on YouTube. Also, having students post videos on YouTube for a project has been successful for me in the past. The kids really seem to enjoy making a movie and then posting it for the world to see.

Overall, I have added a few more tools to my tool box by participating in this activity. Now I just need to find a way to better organize all of this information.

I never thought that I would actually "Tweet"

I have to admit, I promised myself I would never do the “Twitter” thing. Now that I have joined, I do see some of the positive benefit. It is a great way to follow the latest in areas that I am interested in. I can follow ESPN if I want to know the latest in the sports world. I can follow a celebrity if I want to know their next move. I can also keep tabs on my cousin in Washington just by following him on Twitter. Professionally I can follow educational organizations such as NEA or the US Department of Education. This is a good way to keep tabs on what is going on in the Education world nationally. I also found a great research Tweeter (if that’s what you call it) called Teacher Created. This is just another great place to find teacher resources in abundance.
As a coach I can see Twitter as a great place to keep parents and the community in the loop. It could be used to announce schedule changes, rain outs, or game results. Instead of making numerous phone calls, you could simply make one easy post. The problem I see in this is that there are many people that will not get a Twitter account. So maybe Twitter could be used as an additional informational resource. Many of the things I have mentioned above could be used for a class also. I see it working even better for a college course. Besides being used as an announcement tool, it could be used to implement an actual lesson. It could be used as a scavenger hunt, or even a word association activity. Whatever the use might be, Twitter does have its ups and downs.
With all of those benefits I still miss the day when people could go about their business without letting everybody else know about it. Professionally and educationally, I can see many benefits of using Twitter. It is another tool to reach out to students, parents, the community and the educational world. If Twitter becomes a place where you let everyone know that, “I just ate chicken with gravy and vegetables…yummy” than I can do without it.

Tech in the classroom

Working with students in my alternative school has raised many challenges when it comes to using technology in the classroom. Just recently I have started projects that involve students making short films and posting them on youtube. This has been a collaborative project with the media education teacher at our high school, but the kids have been very engaged in this project. While the topic must be research based, the format and style is wide open to the students.

The students have done some of their videos on their personal time and we collaborate in the classroom to share ideas and give constant feedback to how their projects are going. I have yet to find a website to use which they can post there unfinished project. This would allow me to give more constant feedback, but our current format seems to work pretty good.

I feel the students have enjoyed this project because it gives them freedom. I have always said when kids don’t know that they are being taught; they learn the best. It has also been great for them to learn how to get more consistent feedback and in return make adjustments and changes to their projects. Since learning new technologies of the course of the last 5 weeks, I will be implementing a new web 2.0 technology into this project next year to improve the overall collaboration.

What students need to know about the internet

As I was talking to a friend last week, she was sharing her frustrations about her daughter’s use of social networking sites such as Facebook. I was shocked; not at the fact of what this young lady was writing, but the fact that she had a Facebook account at all. This 9 year old young lady was fully indulged in all that Facebook has to offer which includes: reading others (often older peoples) random and often inappropriate posts, seeing pictures that a 9 year old maybe should not see, and also posting things without the understanding of the enormity and permanence of the internet. This was a warning sign to me that we must begin to address things such as internet adequate, internet responsibility, and internet credibility early on in a student’s academic career.

In Alan November's article "4 Thing That Every Student Should Learn...But Not Every School Is Teaching," he brings up a huge red flag in our academic and education system. We must begin to address internet issues with our students. I have read several of my younger cousin’s posts on their social networking accounts and I do not think they truly understand that, I CAN SEE WHAT THEY ARE WRITING. Either that or they are just being irresponsible and lacking empathy and respect. I do believe parents play a large role in monitoring what their son or daughter is doing on the internet, but using an education setting is a great way to reach a large population of students.

I have taught internet safety in my health class for the past 3 years. It seems to open eyes, but overall the kids seem unimpressed. Am I getting to them to late in the 10th grade, or does more time need to be spent. I am looking at revising curriculum and would like to use more real life examples. Next year I want to stress the permanence of the internet as well as the enormity. I want to stress that their specific friend network is not a safe haven for random outburst and inappropriate pictures and comments.

My thoughts on Delicious and Diigo

I have just began using delicious (username is jsoule05 if you want to check it out). So far, it has been great. This is the ultimate PLN tool and quite frankly what I have been looking for for organizing all of my resources and links. I love the tagging feature and the ability to put links into many different categories. It is also great that I can steal from other users. That was a huge emphasis in my undergrad; "steal as many ideas and resources as you can". Delicious in some ways allows me to sit back and let others do the research while I just pick in choose what I like and dislike.

With all of that nice stuff being said, I still wish there was a little more freedom in customization of the page with Delicious. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but it can be overwhelming with all of the new information and tools that I have access to. I am still trying to figure out the best way to maximize the use of this new tool.

I do not have as much experience with Diigo, but it seems like there may be a little more freedom in organization. Especially with tools such as the highlighting feature. My problem is, I have already gotten started with Delicious. I can become overwhelmed if I try to create to many new tools. So, my thought for now is that I will stick with Delicious. any pointer about how to organize my network as far as subscribing to specific tags would be greatly appreciated.

Wiki VS Blog (sounds like childrens cartoon!)

I found finding Wikis much more difficult to find when trying to locate them on the web (if you have any tips, please let me know). The biggest different I found in wikis and blogs is that wikis are more interactive. They can be edited and changed by anybody that has the access to them. Blogs are more one sided. A blog itself cannot be edited by anybody, only commented on. I feel I will be more likely to use blogs when I want to read about different trends, ideas and opinions. I will be more likely to use a wiki when I am collaborating within my school, or am looking for very specific information such as a definition or description of something.
I do understand that there are different uses for both of these technologies. However for now, this is how I feel best served by these tools.

Wikis, Googledocs an More>>>

In the past 2 years I have used Google docs on a few occasions. It has been a great tool for sharing and editing of student contracts, idea sharing, and creating lists for brainstorming. My experience has been positive, but very minimal. This week I have learned how to create different forms and surveys. I have already implemented this into my classroom by getting student feedback on different educational topics. I find these tools very useful and easy to use once you get the hang of it. The feedback is very easy to follow and formats are great for presentations. I will continue to use my newly found expansion of the Google docs.

Wikis and Google Docs are a great way of collaboration. Teachers can maintain a “work in progress” and continue to brainstorm from, the office, home or even on vacation. I have and will use wikis for my professional development in many ways. Sharing information is the first thing that comes to mind. This can be done with a group at your school; or it can be done on a much wider scale in sharing more general ideas. Secondly using them for research to find out what is going on in the world. What are the resent trends? I can also add some ideas that have been working for me. Lastly they can be used to brainstorm very similar to the way we have in our Technology for Collaboration class. It is just another tool to contribute to our teaching and professional development.

I have found some of the following Wikis very useful for me and my teaching:

http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Articles+and+Resources – This wiki has many tutorials, articles, podcasts and discussions. This is good general starting point for teachers.

http://learninginmaineresources.wikispaces.com/Alternative+Education – This wiki is full of links to lessons, websites and ideas in alternative education.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page - this wiki is a collection of textbooks and materials that cover all corners of the educational spectrum.

All of this technology is very new to me. It can be confusing, but also very empowering to find all of this information at my professional fingertips. I will continue to explore and share more as I find