Sunday, June 2, 2013

tool #11

1) I liked making a twitter account and TodaysMeet site for my classes. This allows me to continue classroom discussions outside of the school.

2) I have absolutely expanded my classroom activities to include technology when I once thought technological opportunities were very limited. I need to make sure that I put in the time needed before class in order to make sure the technology is set up and ready for use when class time starts.

3) I didn't realize how many web 2.0 tools are actually out there for us teachers. I believe the students are going to be very excited to get to use technology a lot when doing hand-on learning

tool #10

Three things I would make sure students understand in order to be good digital citizens are:
1) how to distinguish good websites from "bad" ones. Wikipedia is informative... but is not regarded as a "good" cite because anyone can write on it, not just experts on the topic.
2) Copyright laws. You can't just pull things off the internet and make them your own. You will get in trouble.
3) The effects of cyber bullying. Students don't realize that what they say on line may not be taken as a joke. What you post online can have an emotional toll on a person, which can result in stress, anger, and sometime suicide.

iSafe seems like a pretty good program to use.In class I would review the contract signed by parents and students regarding technology usage. Then, get into groups to discuss digital citizenship topics such as netiquette, email, cyber bullying, and avoiding plagiarism.

I would probably send a letter home to parents explaining digital citizenship and telling them what their students will be held accountable for. They would have to sign it and have it returned by their students after having read it.

tool #9

Including technology in the classroom is important because technology is such a big part of life today. There is hardly a job in the world that doesn't involve the same technology available in classrooms. The world is becoming a smaller place everyday. Therefore it is important that we as teachers start getting students to use technology for educational and communicative purposes, not just entertainment.Stations or centers are one of my favorite mediums for teaching. This gives students an opportunity to openly explore topics with others in order to form their own understanding. While exploring, they can communicate with one another and become their own teachers.

I do like that most of these sites you can compete with players around the world. Students must realize that job competition starts at an early age in this time period. They will also be competing for jobs with people located in other parts of the world. I would use Thinkfinity and Interactivate.

The apps i would use are the Colombian Exchange app and the Enlightenment app. Both are able to be completed in a day, but with a limited amount of ipads in the class, students must be held accountable to use their time wisely and stay on task.

I've also made mini powerpoints on subjects and put them on different ipads spread around the class. students rotate to them taking notes themselves on each topic.

Tool #8

I learned how to sync my Ipad to my lap top. I also learned how to create an itunes account.

I  like using the devices in centers. There aren't enough for everyone in the class, so you have to assign 5 or 7 per ipad. They also don't have very good sound so the class must remain silent in order to hear anything that comes out of them. Speakers would be great to have.

Tool #7

I guess I should have done #7 a  little sooner, I little hard to plan a collaborative lesson on finals week.

Tool #6

I have been using twitter all semester to connect with my students outside of the classroom, but also as a way to contact them if I have a substitute for the day. I just made a separate account for purely classroom purposes, that way I don't have to use my personal account which I use for connecting with friends. I also made a Today's Meet classroom response board in order to discuss topics covered in class or their textbooks. Here is an example of one I may use in the future. http://todaysmeet.com/MrNeals4thper

This tool will be excellent for those students that prefer to stay quiet in class. It gives them an opportunity to think a little longer before they respond. 

Tool #5

Most of these Web 2.0 tools require a lot of time and effort, I'll have to get back to tool #5 later.

Tool #4

Google Docs is useful both in and outside the school. I find it particularly useful when collaborating with team members. This past week I've even used in to complete my wedding invitations list with my fiance, and our parents. This way I don't have to scurry around looking for addresses of people I don't know.

Tool #3

You tube is a very useful source for a history teacher. There are really some many great things posted by others with more experience in particular subjects, such as John Green. He does a series of videos called "Crash Course in World History" where he gives 10-15 minute overviews on particular subjects. He uses both his own understanding of the topics, and cartoons entertain and give students the imagery of what happened during that time period or event. Here is an example of his crash course on the agricultural revolution.

Here is another video on the french revolution which we watched in my class back in January


Copyright laws have always been fishy to me. Back when I was in school, I remember being afraid of accidentally plagiarizing on every paper I wrote. I would use other sources for research, and include bits and pieces in order to support my own thoughts. I thought as long as you cited the source you were in the clear,but apparently that's not always the case. Now as a teach I have to worry about fair use and copyright laws that are quite similar. Until last year, I thought that only books or writing samples could be copyrighted, but now I know videos, photos, music, and even dances can be under copyright laws too. You must make sure that you keep in mind the nature of the use, purpose of the use, amount of the use, and effect on potential markets.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Tool #2

Tool two seemed like it was going to be an easy task, but it proved to be harder than I thought. There are a lot of blogs out there by teachers, but not all of them are useful for me. I couldn't really figure out how to "follow" these other blogs, but I wont quit trying. There are several out there that do apply to my classroom, and I wish to share those with everyone in the future.I'm going to set up a Diigo account and see if that helps.

Sharing thoughts publicly never bothered me, I think blogs can be a useful tool to a certain degree. I think one weakness of sharing thoughts publicly is that other readers can take your thoughts or ideas and develop a skewed perception of the writer based on a small sample of writings.

This is a blog about using technology in the classroom, I couldn't figure out how to subscribe to it without an "error" popping up along the road so I'm including it in this post. http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/

Tool #1

Just finished Tool #1, which took a lot longer than expected. I'm not very good at navigating through Google chrome, but I do have experience using blogger in years past so the creating and posting wasn't very difficult. The Voki was also simple to make, although I don't know if he will do much for those viewing my page. Game on, 11 tools.