I believe...
Friday, July 30, 2010
Web Tools Reflection
With that being said, I don’t believe that technology implementation is a necessity to be a successful teacher. Several of my colleagues shared stories about teachers that use minimal technology in their classrooms. I think most of us agreed that there isn’t a set picture or set number of educational strategies or a set amount technology implemented that defines what it means to be a great teacher. If I were to finish this sentence, “I use technology as…” I would say…
• a tool that opens new doors and allows one to “see” new places not possible without technology
• a tool for organization
• a tool for collaboration
• a tool for creation and presentation
• a tool for gathering (and receiving) information
The last bullet makes me think “Web 2.0.” And the perfect way to conclude is to explain what I learned about the Web 2.0 and how it affects my life. I learned about several tools that can be classified as Web 2.0 instead of Web 2.0. One key Web 2.0 tool that I used this semester was Google Reader. Google Reader allowed me to instantly receive the new information being posted to other websites or blogs. The information was coming to me (in one spot) rather than me having to go out and find what I wanted. What a big time saver! The Web 2.0 is different than past “generations” because information comes to your rather than you going out to find information. This makes a lot a sense. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of the concept prior to this class. Maybe it will be like so many trends, once it “lights up,” it will take off like wild fire. I know I can’t wait to share the tools that I’ve learned this summer. I wonder if my principal would give me 5-10 minutes during our monthly staff meetings?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Final Project - Finally
The video took a lot longer to put together than I anticipated because I did it COMPLETELY alone (I pressed record on the camera and everything). I used a simple flip camera that I check out at school. After searching for and then cutting out all the clip art I was ready for my first "take." After scrapping the first 5 or 6 takes, I decided I would have to shoot in small clips. I was really happy with the end result. I did no editing, I just combined the 7 small (about 1 and 30 seconds each) mp4 files.
I had issues with my FlipShare program only wanting to save my combined clips as a .wmv file (and I don't think Mac users can open that). So I downloaded a "free" converter program and when 20% of my movie was converted to an mp4, the free download was asking me for a subscription and fee. I thought, enough with that, I could try to upload my first youtube video. Here is my video :-)
Let me know what you think? I'm on to my final project for CHEM580
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Week 6 Tools - Images, Images & More Images
This week I signed up and played around with web tools involving images. I created accounts in Picnik and Flickr. Lee LeFever, author of the In Plain English series, has another great video for “Photo Sharing.” The video is less than 3 minutes and you can see it on youtube here. If anything he makes a good point, that because of the threat of fire or unfortunate event, we all should back up our previous photos on the web. He also suggests trying out the public share option after uploading your photos. I may try this as I agree that keeping them private is no better than putting them in a physical photo album and letting them sit on a shelf. I also really like the easy method of organization using titles and “tags.” I’m using the “tags” feature with the website organization tool Diigo now. Tags make finding a specific item in a sea of hundreds or thousands really easy. Picnik is a commercial site and they want your business. One downside of Picnik is that only 5 photos can be uploaded at one time (unless you pay to upgrade).
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Week 5 Tools
Google Earth
I can’t believe how fast time flies just exploring one tool. I first downloaded Google Earth yesterday and spent a few minutes (okay, an hour and a half) just looking at various features. I really like Google’s description of this awesome tool:
Here was a resource (free download) that is “An Illustrated Guide to Creating Virtual Field Trips Using Google™ Services.” Let me know what you think.
Make a Link for Your Document
As you can see from my previous posts, I blogged about wikis and blogs in the classroom. For this I created a “Blog Self Assessment” Rubric. But when I wanted to attach my document to my blog post I only saw a button to upload an image or video. Never fear, I remembered one of my classmates raving about how easy Scribd was to use to publish a document, presentation, spreadsheet etc. Actually, I couldn’t even remember what the publishing site was called. So I researched it and Scribd rang a bell. I created a link that I embedded into my post in seriously less than 1 minute. You can see my rubric here that I created using Scribd.
"Blog Self-Assessment" Attachment
Blog on Blogs
As far as a class wiki, I don’t see myself incorporating a classroom wiki in the near future. I can see the benefit for using a class wiki for a virtual learning experience. I watched the youtube video posted by Gordon that includes a teacher explaining how her students collaborate using a wiki in order to write an essay. All the while I was thinking why not just use Google Docs? For those teachers that are already using a wiki for something like a group essay, what is the benefit over using Google Docs?
Requiring either web tool could prove to be discriminatory. As some of my students don’t even have a computer at home, making a requirement that involves the internet could serve to be a hardship or challenge for some. I may need to provide in class time for such a requirement. Or maybe when I help them set up their blog accounts, I could ask them to fill out a simple technology survey. From the survey, I should know who may have limited access to the internet. For these students, I could provide them a one-day-a-week pass to my seminar (a 25 minute “homeroom” of sorts that falls in the middle of the day).
Friday, July 9, 2010
Web Tools - Week 4
Google Docs is definitely the best web tool I’ve explored this summer. I can’t count the number of times I was at home the night before I was to teach a specific lesson creating and then emailing myself something to use the next day. Or I can’t believe I was taking the time and putting my computer at risk of viruses to load a lab report from a student document. All the while we could have been using Google Docs. Here’s a In Plain English video that I found very informative.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Students love to ARGUE!!!
I use several methods, from labs and demos to concept maps to homework practice with the equations. But I have no doubt that if students could see “how we know science” rather than “what we know about the world and how it works” would be meaningful and enjoyable. I especially like Sampson and Grooms Step 3 in the process. Step 3 involves the construction of an interactive poster SESSION. They say session because students engage in a round-robin format, to collaborate and critique one another. The round-robin format is a way to make each member in the 3 to 4 person team accountable as one person stays to present the argument while team members rotate together to hear other arguments. And lastly, a step often put on the bottom of the totem pole of too many high school science courses is putting their final argument in writing. I would assume this also serves to make each member accountable.
The project that I generated is called “How Well Can You Argue??? Project (Investigating the Relationship between Specific Heat and Atomic Weight).” The project that I generated will require students to use the online data here answer the questions “Is there a relationship between specific heat and atomic weight? If so, what is it? They will work in teams of 3 – 4 and create a presentation in the form of a glog (online poster) or Power Point Presentation. Students will then share in a round-robin format. Finally, students will be given a writing prompt based upon the initial question. This will help ensure that each student is accountable for understanding the rationale behind their argument.
Friday, July 2, 2010
I Heart Diigo - Week 3 Summary
I also set up an account at glogster.com but was having a hard time with the getting Adobe Flash Player to work. However, I’ve got the idea behind “Postering Yourself.” I think this is something that my student would enjoy; after all it is geared toward teens and preteens. I like the fact that this is something they could save on a computer and work on outside of school. However, I would be concerned about assigning it as homework, as only about 50% of the students at my rural, West Michigan school have internet access. Although, I’m willing to try glogster in place of a traditional glue-cut-paste project, I do think that some people get a lot of enjoyment from that physical form of creation.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Copyright & Technology
I want to start my blog with a question, “If a teacher leaves a school district, does the teacher get to keep the educational materials, like a lab worksheet, that he/she designed or is the property of the school district?” I had a colleague tell me that anything I create becomes the school’s property. I could find anything legal online so I thought maybe someone out there in cyber land might have a resource.
As far as copyright infringement, the following quote authored by Linda Starr from Education World (2010) really made me say “What!?!”
“Most copyright experts recommend this rule of thumb -- when in doubt, assume a work is copyrighted and ask permission to use it. Don't make the common mistake of believing that including quotation marks or a line of attribution satisfies copyright requirements. If you properly quote and/or credit a work's author, experts say, you cannot be accused of plagiarism, but you may still be accused of copyright infringement.”
I also found it interesting that the only reason we don’t hear about educators being persecuted for copyright infringement, and lets face it almost all teachers do it, is because the task force to fight the problem isn’t big enough (due to the lack of $$$).
I read the copyright policy on software and school use. The first thing that came to my mind was the fact that last year our building purchased several new textbooks. Because several teachers would be teaching multiple sections, our technology director made copies of the CDs that came with the single copy of the teacher resource material. Wow! I can’t imagine that he had permission to burn copies of that software.
The biggest piece of information that I now know about copyright law is that you need to ask permission when you’re not sure if it’s copyrighted.
If you’d like further information on copyright infringement, specifically copyright law and technology, check out Starr’s article here. Hope I didn't infringe on the copyright laws.