Education 843

Welcome back!

For starters today…

Did You Know? 4.0  by Karl Fisch

As we create our blogs: Blogs in Plain English

1) To create your blog, click above on the “Resources for Creating a Blog” tab. Links to Creative Commons image search engines: FlickrStorm andFlickrCC

If you need more resources for images that are ok to use with attribution, look at the list here.

Good etiquette to follow in your blog:

• If you mention a website, link to it.
• If you mention an online persona, link to that person’s website.
• Don’t forget to add tags and give your post a category (aren’t these great skills for students?)
• If you use an image, include an attribution and link to it. This means link to the specific webpage the image resides on. Example, for the photo above, I have included all this in order to give proper attribution:

• Don’t use student photos (or any other photos) without permission.

2) There are more resources if you scroll down to #6 on the links (rt. side of this page).

Web 2.0

Definitions + an example:

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube by Mike Wesch (I’ll be showing a portion of this…the video below is his full length presentation.

For visuals, visit this post from last year on the Web 2.0 project.

First, I’d like to thank Jennifer in Period 1 for the fantastic header image you see above! Nice work! I’m checking in to see how you all are doing! I’ll report on my adventures integrating technology into my Language Arts class.

1. I’m using a blog as our class homepage. Right now we’ve got a homework page, so they can check their homework if needed. Our first unit is on the main page, with a quiz I made using MyStudiyo. Easy! My goal is to eventually train my students to create these quizzes for their vocabulary words.
2. I wanted to see if they knew how to use Word, so as part of our Character Counts, they created “Responsibility Posters.” Tech goals: check your spelling, use a different font and different color for each line, don’t press Return at the end of the line, and choose a size that allows your poster to fill the page. An example:    
   
3. Luckily we have a school-wide email system for students (not many teachers use it, however). I introduced them to it, then emailed them questions to answer using their text. I had them answer one set in handwriting, and the second set by email. I liked it and they liked it! I’ll probably continue in that manner.
   

Just so you know, for both projects, they took longer than I thought. We just had a make-up day Thursday, with students finishing up their posters and their questions. Now that the stress of the “first time” is over, I think we’ll do well.

So…how are you doing? How is your class so far? Have you been able to start the technology project yet? (Don’t worry, you still have 2 weeks). I’m just checking in.

*Class info survey…please click here to complete.

I’m excited to welcome you to our tech blog. This blog is the center of our class, it’s where you can find links to everything we’re working on. If there is ever something you’d like me to add, just let me know. As we meet for the first time, the first thing we’ll use this blog for is introductions. I’ll start with myself! I just received my 30 year pin from the Lennox School District (yikes! ok, but 2 years I was an aide). I teach at Lennox Middle School…5 periods of Technology Exploratory (mixture of 7th & 8th graders), and one period of 7th grade Language Arts. The links in the previous sentence will take you to our class blogs. In the next couple of weeks the Tech kids will receive their own blogs, my Language Arts students will follow them a few weeks after that. So we’re just getting started…My Tech students are with me for only one semester, and the core of the class is learning Graphic Design through Fireworks and Flash. However, on Wednesdays we focus on other things like info literacy, copyright, how to cite resources, blogs, and becoming users of Google Apps.

My 7th graders are intelligent, but not sure that they really are, so my job is to make sure they know how to be confident readers and writers. We’ll be integrating technology in many ways, but we’re just getting started so we haven’t yet gotten into blogs and Google Apps like I want…but we’ll get there, bit by bit. This class is new to me, so I’ll be reporting back to you how things are going as I integrate technology.

Now I’d like you to introduce yourself…please leave a comment.

1) Tell us your first name (1st name only please), what grade/subject you teach, and describe the personality of this year’s class or classes. If you’re not in the classroom, describe what you do!

2) Is there anything that struck you in the videos?

3) What is your experience integrating technology into your curriculum? Let us know any ways that you’ve used technology, either this year or in previous years. It’s ok if you haven’t yet, that’s what this class is about!

Don Tapscott (Grown Up Digital):

Meet Virginia:

RSS in Plain English

I thought I’d share with you how I asked my students to evaluate the class. I stuck to the 8th graders because my 7th graders were trying to finish up a project and we ran out of time. I used a Google Docs form that I linked to from the class blog. It’s great, I now have all the students’ responses on one spreadsheet in Google Docs…so easy! At the end, please complete the form for this class…click on the link at the end, it’ll ask you to sign into Google Docs, then complete it.

Here’s what I wanted to know so that I could improve the course next year:

What was your favorite application & why? (We used Fireworks, Flash and Edublogs)

What was your favorite project & why?

Which project did you learn the most from? Explain.

What was your least favorite project & why? (I got some great info from this one!)

Is there anything you would have changed about this class?

What advice do you have for future Technology students? (I’ll use this info in my beginning of the year intro)

For my LMU students, why do you think it’s important to use technology in regular classes?

Here’s some of their responses (I kept their spelling):

• Its important because it helps us advance in our future and goals.
• Its important because you get to be more experienced and more into the new things and get more smarter
• I think it is important to use technology because you would probably have to use it in the future.
• Because it could be a fun way to learn.
• Because It Will Help Give You Updated Information On The Subject Unlike Text Books That Have Information From The Past
• Because it makes it more easy!!!
• its important to have technology because kids will have to use tech in college then they will know how to use the computer.
• Because the kids really enjoy it and it makes it fun at the same time.
• It is important because it well help with doing project presentations & being organized.
• Because they help clarify work and make it easy.
• Yes because using tech is a smart thing to do.
• It will teach you things you need in life and how all the things you needwill be used in technology
• Because  Tech is everywhere without tech you are not able to do nothing Also because it is important for people to learn about technology: Good Luck it’s really Simple
• I think it important because it doesn’t waist a paper. Also its easier for kids to take notes instead of having to write it on the board. It be tiring and if the teacher erases it the student wont get the note.
• I think it is important because this is something we are going to use for the rest of are life to get info.
• It will be something that you are going to use to help u understand things better .
• Technology is a very important subject in life and you need technology for everything now a days so I guess its really important to know how to manage it.

So keep that in mind, and keep integrating technology!

Click here to complete the evaluation of this class.

Here’s a link to a “Starter Sheet” (.pdf file) created by Andrew Churches (what a great wiki!) to help you out if you want to create your own forms.

Have a great summer.

Image: ‘wham:a different corner‘

www.flickr.com/photos/41754875@N00/233508614

If you have students who are audio learners, Read the Words will allow you to type something, upload a document, or point to a webpage that an avatar will read aloud. Students can use this to help proofread their own work, to help them with vocabulary, to help them read stories. Students may choose both an avatar to read, and the voice of the avatar.  Here’s a sample of an avatar reading text I pasted in:

(Text from Awesome Stories)

There are teaching ideas here: http://www.readthewords.com/TestTeachers.aspx

You can type in 3 recordings for free (and I assume delete them and create 3 more). It’s 19.99 a year to be able to create, save and embed 25 files, and 34.99 to create, save and embed 100 files. Worth it if you’ll use it a lot.

And in my wandering for ideas, this slide show came up… From Erik Langhorst about using mp3s in the classroom. Even if your school won’t allow iPods, iTouches, mp3 players in the classroom, you could always post the audio file on your blog or wiki. Great ideas here for helping students study!