Week Four

The resource that I found was a Web 2.0 tool within itself. "DE Tools of the Trade," is a blog is updated daily with a new Web 2.0 tool. It lists the idea, website and reasoning for why is a good site to use. It deals with a variety of content areas as while keeping technology integration in mind.

This is a very valuable resource! This is not an article, however this will be a resource that will continue to provide me with ideas for advancing my classroom in the direction of technology integration. This blog can be followed on a program such as Google Reader to update my personal expansion of incorporating technology into various aspects of the classroom.

DE Tools of the Trade
http://www.detools.ca/

Goldsmith, John. DE Tools of the Trade. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2011. <http://www.detools.ca/>.

Week Three

Studying historical events can sometimes be boring to read out of a textbook. Having students do research and create projects about these events can make it more fun and entertaining for their peers when they present. While looking through various presentation orientated websites, I found Museum Box. This website allows students to create a box of facts, pictures, links and videos to support their viewpoint or research of a topic. All of these things can be uploaded into six different boxes (which each have six sides, like a box). The main goal of this lesson would be to have the student find a viewpoint about their topic and support that point with facts, photos and even videos (if they are available). Students can also work together on a collaborative project. The research for the project does not have to be historical, of course, and there are many different topics that can be chosen for students to work on.

This site can allow for active participation. It also allows for a quick assessment on the part of the educator to see if the student is on task and understanding their topic. The teacher will be able to monitor the student's progress as well, if they have the students upload their boxes to the main links.

The example that was done is on the 19th Amendment, or the Women's Suffrage Movement. The image that I present is what the set up will look like once the student has put the information on the front of each box. After their information has been entered into each portion of the boxes, they can submit their work to a shared page and others can look at it to see what other people had said.

Teacher Interview Summary

So, I drafted an email and sent it to one of my favorite teachers from high school. I knew that he had used technology at times, plus I had wonderful suggestions in mind for him! This was going to be perfect! Friday rolls around and I have no response...but little did I remember, he was also my speech coach, and it is speech season. Alas, he does not have the time available to email me back :(


I thought about the teachers that I could email and had a hard time thinking of one that I could get ahold of that would produce some valuable information for me to analyze, summarize and learn from. Then I thought of my mom. She is a special education teacher. For some reason in my mind, I had put her profession in terms of technology in another category, and since I am not planning on teaching special education, figured that would not be the setting for me to interview. However, after thinking more about it, I came to recognize that she does do a lot with technology and that it could, in fact, pertain to me! I also thought about it and I, in turn, would be able to provide her with some valuable suggestions of other Web 2.0 tools that she can use as an educator in the classroom and with her students.


When interviewing my mom, the setting was (of course) casual. This interview took place on the phone, which I found to be helpful because then the questions and answers can be explained and answered more in depth without the pain of having to type it all out.


She teaches five to ten year olds who are severe and profound. They are all in wheelchairs. The school that she teaches at is geared specifically towards special education, therefore the whole school consists of these wonderfully happy students. She always says that although they can talk with their mouths, they can talk with their eyes. She also tells me that her job is to make their day as happy and fun as possible. This is how I know that she is a true believer in her students and wants to do what is best for them. In turn, I wanted this assignment to benefit her (and her students) as well.


Upon originally discussing the Web 2.0 tools, she stated that she didn't think that she used very many, but by the time we were done (with it taking half an hour to go through all of them) she had changed her mind! We discussed various tools, ranging from those that are beneficial mainly to the students, planning lessons, data collecting, or for the sake of professional development and experience. 


Here are some of the programs and tools that she uses:
Within her classroom, she uses a program called Intellitools. This is a program that allows teachers to access games, stories or interactive activities for students to use. Different teachers create these and you can access it via Internet and choose topics and download the activities onto you computer. The reason they do this is because for the activities that are uploaded, they receive points. The points add up and can be turned in for equipment.


Mailbox Magazine is a subscription that her school has, however, it also has a sharing website. This is beneficial to her because it allows her to access pictures and games that can be downloaded to her computer and printed. These can be used with the students, bulletin boards, etc.


Scholastic has a wonderful program that she has access to (that the school district funds) called Book Flix. This program has a variety of books that are available to use. This website also pairs books up, one fiction book to one non-fiction, so that students can get a balance of the two. These books are read to the kids, with it changing pages with the touch of a button. This can be programmed to work as a function on a switch that can be placed on the tray of the student's wheelchair. 


Reading A to Z is another website that her school has a subscription. It is a database of books that have been made by the Reading A to Z company geared to reading levels AA through Z. These books can be downloaded to the computer, printed and compiled into books. They can be printed in black and white or color (so if you wanted to students to color it as they went).

In order to compile information for the school district, she uses Infinite Campus. This is the school district's data collection program. This is where progress reports, attendance and IEPs are compiled.

My mom's school has a SmartBoard. This board is portable and can be used in different classrooms. The teachers can check out the board and use it in their classroom. She told me that she is one of the only teachers that actually uses it on a semi-regular basis, even though all of the teachers have been trained on how to use it. This is usually used for Book Flix, making it easier for the students to see. She also plays videos for her students to watch, using the a DVD or CD on the computer.

She also uses other websites for implementation into her lesson plans, such as Family Fun Magazine online.

These tools increase engagement with the students, allowing them to trigger and utilize various senses and motor skills. The school district trained the teachers to be prepared to use some of these tools, and others were up to the teachers to find on their own. The representative form the area education agency, came to the school and trained the teachers on how to use Intellitools. There was someone from the district that trained them on the SmartBoard and they went to classes to learn how to use Infinite Campus.

Week Two

Using blogs and wikis in the classroom can promote 21st century skills by benefiting educators, students and parents. Educators can post information for their colleagues as well as their students. They can make information more readily available for students by organizing links or specific information into one webpage. They can share information with the parents about what is going on within the classroom by having a weekly blog, classroom letter, etc. The students can also work towards compiling information about various topics individually, as a group or as a class into different wiki pages or blogs. There are many different ways that wikis and blogs can be used, and with the expansion of capabilities that they have, the possibilities are expanding as well.

A good way of explaining how blogs are used meaningfully in a classroom is based off of the response that is received from it. If the other educators, students or parents respond in a positive manner, then the blog has been effective. Warlick talks about teachers’ blogs using RSS (Rich Site Summary) and how “with aggregation software, students, parents, administrators and other teachers can subscribe and have the freshly written blog entries immediately and automatically delivered to their desktops.” Having this available could open an entirely new line of communication between educators and parents, as well as parental involvement. There is a fine line of what can be shared on the public Internet, but by creating a private blog, it is possible to allow the students to have their own blogs for their parents and teacher to read. Another way to determine if they are being used meaningfully is by how the students are using the materials and resources available. 

Teaching Digital Citizenship is important because it prepares students for their future relationships with Web 2.0 technologies. As an educator, Lindsay and Davis claim that you have to follow a few steps to becoming effective with digital citizenship. You have to have a plan, because negative things are bound to happen with all of the information that is available for students to access. As a teacher, you have to be prepared ahead of time to prevent that from happening. Another step is “overcoming the fear factor” by testing your boundaries within the realm of digital citizenship with your students and seeing what they are capable of working with, understanding and learning from. You also have to be willing to “deal with objections” because not every consumer in your class will be in agreement with the material that is being covered, understand what is going on, or want to be involved with specific material. Another step is sometimes difficult for educators and causes them to test their personal boundaries by “straying off topic.” This is a step that I find to be questionable because you have to only do this within reason. Students are very smart and will create their own paths of exploration when given the option on the computer. This will allow them to have the ability to expand their digital citizenship skills while the teacher is making sure it is appropriate. The last step is to “put learning in the hands of the students.” This is positive because one of the most effective ways for students to learn and retain information is through self-exploration.

Another method that is effective for digital citizenship is discussed in the article “Passport to Digital Citizenship.” Ribble states that having students discuss and reflect on the material that they have looked at or learned about will help them to retain the information and analyze its importance. The article provides a format for students to work towards a reflection. This reflection is made up of four steps: awareness, guided practice, modeling and demonstration, and feedback and analysis. Through these steps, the author claims that it will be a good start to the beginning of a discussion/reflection. They also bring up the point of involving the parents and community.

Digital Citizenship was practiced in my high school. Computer use was somewhat expected of the students, with the teachers wanting the papers and assignments to be typed, as well as wanting students to do research on the Internet. Having the freedom to explore the World Wide Web has its positives and negatives. It definitely benefited me into knowing what to look for in a reliable resource as well as using my time wisely when doing research. Web 2.0 tools are helping students with their digital citizenship more and more everyday as they are created, making them all more prepared to become digital citizens of the World Wide Web.

Week One

The creation of the new World Wide Web has opened many windows, doors and portals of communication among the world. It has made the use of the Internet more accessible and easy for those who do not necessarily know the HTML codes to make web pages run. When the World Wide Web had begun, that is how it was, with the web being at a 1.0 status. Now that it is at a 2.0, the general public is able to display their thoughts, feelings, whereabouts and opinions for others to see.  The reading written by Richardson discusses how the World Wide Web has shifted into the “read/write web” in regards to how the consumer can now become the producer. It is fascinating to think that only a few years ago many things were not possible on the web. Blogging, (like what is going on now), would have only been possible for those who were technologically advanced, and the ability to share photos, music and videos would not be as frequent or as effortless as it is today. The average Internet user now has the ability to get onto their web browser and log onto a website of their choosing, editing it to meet their specifications, wants and needs. They can read what others have read and respond or comment on it. This read/write format is the justification that Richardson had for labeling the new World Wide Web with the title of the “read/write web.”

The evolution of the World Wide Web has greatly affected many groups as well as individuals. The ability to access the Internet and desired web pages with ease makes it much more frequent for the general public to do so. The ability to "revise as needed" is described in the reading authored by Richardson and Mancabelli. The potential that the Internet has to be able to change within seconds, keeping people updated and aware of things such as the news make school textbooks obsolete in regards to the accuracy and timeliness of their information. It also explains the capability that an individual has with the Internet, being able to sift through mountains and oceans worth of information. This is useful in many ways because it not only saves the individual time when it comes to research, but it offers them the ability to weed through the information that is not necessary or applicable to the topic at hand.

The ability to communicate has been reinvented with Web 2.0 technologies. Richardson and Mancabelli discuss "the ability to connect to people in this way allows us to form powerful communities of practice where likemindedness, passionate people can team together." This allows individuals to find others that share the same ideas and thoughts while meeting others and voicing their opinions. They go on to discuss that there can also be implications with this practice, with individuals sometimes missing the fine line of being able to do their own work, with collaboration resting too much on one's shoulders. This, can happen without the use of the Internet, but having the vast amount of resources available, it can be much easier to copy or edit another person's work and pass it off as your own. This is something that educators need to look into and make sure is not happening within or out of the classroom.

As an educator, we need to embrace the ability to use technology. It should be used to communicate with students as well as parents as well as be a foundation for students to communicate with one another. This implementation will not be a process that will be easy or simplistic. It should be taken seriously and should be planned out in advance. An example of this is if the teacher wanted the students to do a blog, then they would have to plan out for the students to make the pages private and communicate with others.

According to Richardson, education is slow on the adaptation of technology into their programs and schools. This can have many implications in regards to the preparedness of the students as they enter the workforce and what they will be expected to do and how they will need to program technology to perform. Throughout my K-12 career, we had access to a computer lab in elementary, junior high and high school. The use of computers was not stressed until high school when they were used more frequently. In high school the students would often be expected to turn in their papers in a typed format. Beyond the ability to type and format a paper as well as do some light research on the Internet, I was not prepared for much more than that. Luckily I was privileged to be able to have my own computer at home and be able to work with it on a daily basis, gaining knowledge from my own experience. Schools need to prepare students better for the technological world, because even though there is a chance that they will get that experience on their own, they should be better prepared for the working field, more importantly, for college. The ability to use technology is crucial nowadays, so students planning on going to college will need to be equipped with the skills necessary to access and use Web 2.0 technologies.