5 Web 2.0

The podcast list several different web 2.0 tools, which all seem useful in their own purposes. I think using social media in conjunction with instruction in a classroom is a great idea and my favorite from the podcast. It makes the real world more relatable in a classroom setting so students can be prepared to be polite and safe on the Internet. Collaboration is an important aspect in schooling. I think my second favorite would be YouTube. It is a great tool as well since you can do things like show an educational video or a virtual field trip. Web 2.0 tools are more interesting to students since they are more interactive. One of the most important tools a classroom will need is a computer with Internet access, a keyboard, a mouse, and a screen (pgs 90-95) so that students can access the proper Web 2.0 tools. Peripherals will allow students to save, scan, and print their work and bring it home and work on it on other devices, which are also called peripherals (pg 97). Electronic whiteboards are my favorite peripherals. My mom has a smart board in her classroom and I always loved interacting with it.

I chose to go into depth into the Web 2.0 tool kidblog (http://kidblog.org/home/) since we have discussed blogging in this class frequently and we have blogs for this class. This website is easy to step up and free for teachers and students. You provide your email address, name, and a password. Once you sign up you confirm your email address. Then you are brought to the home screen where you can create classrooms with specific descriptions like "6th grade science blogs" or whatever grade or class you are teaching. You can search through blogs by name, tags, categories, and members.

The posting itself can be started by clicking new post. You can choose a header image for your post to correspond with the topic. You choose a title, a background color and texture, and the usual font settings. You can then post to the page with tags sort of like a twitter account and also you assign categories they can post their blogs posts to. When you hit post you get to choose your audience, either teacher, classmates, connections, and public. You can also choose to pin the post. Based on your settings, people can comment on your blog postings. This website is an easy way to monitor children's collaboration and teaches them real world skills.

I am an avid user of concept maps in writing. I use it to organize my thoughts before I start my first draft. I did not like the idea of using it to create study guides. It was very difficult to make it flow and fit correctly because the information was so broad topic wise. I learned that using linking words helps the chart flow better. In my future I will try to limit my topics trying to be fit onto one concept map for my students. If I make another concept map I will try to make it flow better and be more spread out.

Independent Learning Project: Design a Podcast

I kind of did two Design ILP through this project. First, I created a podcast on learning styles and study tips through Garage band on my Macbook Air. Then I realized blogger does not easily allow you to upload video files. Through some research I discovered that Google has a function called Google Sites that will let you create a free website that you can use to display information or, in my case, drop files. I created a very basic site for the use of this ILP but I hope to create a more complex one soon. Visit this link to access my podcast.

References

G.K12.6.1.2a. (2014, February). Retrieved from http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewStandard/Preview/7444 

What Type of Learner Are You? (n.d.). Retrieved from               http://www.montana.edu/gallatincollege/programs/tools/type.php

4 Teaching with Standards

• The social studies, American history, standard for fifth grade, SS.5.A.1.2, discusses historical inquiry and analysis by utilizing time lines to identify and discuss American history time periods. 
• If students would like to view time lines of American history time periods a simple google search will pull of thousands of images of the time period they need. To learn and apply this standard, students can go to http://www.myhistro.com/ to create free interactive time lines with information with facts from American history lessons. 
• I would have students create their own time lines as we go through chapters of information so that they have a place that is a visual representation of the events we learn about. 
• This website fits the Chapter 8 category of a content specific software since it can only be used to outline when events occurred in a social studies or history setting.

The Internet is almost always a great resource for researching. The Internet provides access to web pages, journals, articles, photos, videos, blog posts, and so many other great resources that are all in one place. Sometimes, the Internet provides false information so it is important to back your research up with many other sources. While the Internet is the best tool for research, I am a firm believer in physical books and going to libraries. I want my children to use the Internet for research, but I also want to have my students experience research the old fashion way. The Internet is always useful, as long as you cite your sources and have extra resources as backup for your thoughts.

To evaluate resources, I used the tool easybib. When you copy and paste a link it tells you whether or not the source is credible. I also stayed away from things like wikis/wikipedia since people can edit them which makes them not as reliable for accuracy. I prefer to use things like peer reviewed journals from databases since they are definitely reliable. Through the podcast I learned about Author Bias Content Design Technical elements acronym for evaluating websites. Another important factor is how stable the website is, or how likely it is to change. Reviewing domain name, following the links you provide, and viewing advertisements are important to judge how reliable the source is and make sure it is safe for students to view. I did not know many of the ways to judge a website but I want to utilize these in my classroom in the future and in my daily life.

By working on the web hunt, I learned that there are many ways to simplify googling so that you have a more specific results. I learned that many online tools meet standards that I can use in my classroom in the future.

Web hunt challenges:
Find a picture of a cat that you could reproduce on t-shirts and sell at your school.
Find a website that provides a free graphing calculator online to use in your math class.

3 Websites, Software, and Newsletters

For my website critique I decided to critique Edmodo since we used it in class and I found it to be a great tool. I decided to use the Website Evaluation Rubric from Chapter 9 of Teaching and Learning with Technology on page 222 of the text. For almost all of the ratings of Edmodo I would give them 5s, an excellent rating. The goal of Edmodo is clear as being a way to collaborate with students, teachers, and parents as well as teaching students about social networking. The design is easily navigable and user friendly because the design is simple and efficient. It includes a site map and search engine as well as easy to read elements. There is a copyright date at the bottom as well as dates for each post and reply visible. Content varies by what the teacher decides to connect with their page, which allows for the content to be more relevant to the topic being covered. Teachers can provide a link to another page to make the content more specialized to the area and provide access to other tools. The only item I would rate lower than a 5 would be handicapped access. While you can link to videos and things that work with sound but you would need to read the text to access the page, for that reason the website is mostly text based. For this reason I would give it a 3 for handicapped access. Edmodo can be found at www.edmodo.com.

My classroom will implement use of computers the most using basic Internet applications like e-mail, search engines, viewing educational videos and pages, and generally surfing the web. I would also like to implement discussion boards and collaboration online with Edmodo or the like. Blog posts, like the ones we do for this class, are a great tool to check understanding of material so I would love to implement them too. Chapter 9 has a list of web tools that are useful for classes. I would like to implement a Learning Management System like Moodle for a virtual classroom. I would like to implement Class Dojo to in my class to monitor behavior. Social Bookmarking tools like Diigo will allow me to share websites with colleagues and describe their usefulness (218-220). Digital citizenship lessons are so important to teach because of how often technology is integrated into class. I will teach them to be polite and kind on the Internet even if they disagree with another person, be careful to protect their identity, be cautious and report inappropriate actions online, be respectful of intellectual property, collaborate with others to learn, as well as learn through their own actions(224-225).  

I learned how to organize word into columns, use word art in titles, and use shapes as borders through doing the newsletter assignment. These skills will be useful in my future classroom so I can create newsletters or other projects through word effectively and creatively. I struggled with formatting the page back to one column after my three column middle  section, but I ended up liking the way I formatted it better for design purposes. 

Independent Learning Project: Teacher ToolBox on Class Dojo

Check out my Independent Learning Project: Teacher Tool Box on Class Dojo through voicethread at this link! I choose this tool because it had been mentioned in the instructions and in an example through the textbook so I became very curious on how this tool was used.

https://voicethread.com/new/share/7038961/

2 Microsoft Word, Copyright, and Twitter

As a student, I use Microsoft Word almost everyday. It is a great place to write papers, presentations, or notes since you can save them and access them at a later date or share them through the Internet with other people. The most common ways I have seen teachers use Microsoft Word to write up notes for an event, instructions for an assignment, or rubrics for grading.  As a teacher, I would probably use Microsoft Word in a very similar way to my former teachers. I think having typed up notes regarding classroom activities or field trips will allow more formal communication with the parents. Giving out typed up instructions to my students for assignments will help them stay on task. Rubrics will help students see a clear reason for why they received a certain grade. I would also ask my students to use word for typing papers, presentations, and notes.

As a student, I am relatively familiar with copyright laws. I was an active member of TV Production in high school. When we would enter videos into competitions we would have to be very careful to get permission to use any music in the video or find music without copyrights for free use. I am also familiar with creating a works cited page and using in text citations in papers and presentations to cite work and photos. As a teacher I will continue to be careful to cite work, music, and photos in my presentations. I will also strive to give presentations to my students on how to cite material properly and use free use material. I will be careful to make sure my intellectual property is properly copyrighted to protect my ideas and work in the future. Copyright laws are addressed in ISTE Teacher Standard 4.

Twitter is a tool that I have not frequently used. It did not appeal to me. I think using Twitter for scholarly purposes, like for EME 2040, is a great idea. It is a great way to network and share information with peers. As a future educator, I think it would be great to have a class twitter page to share updates and photos from my class with their parents through social media. I look forward to learning more about Twitter and other social media for educational purposes.

1 Digital Natives in a Modern World

Computers are now completely essential to learn in today's world. Computers are for research, communication, writing papers, or submitting assignments online. There is not a way to avoid technology in a classroom or learning environment. Therein lies the problem. If you do not have access to technology or for some reason your technology malfunctions, you cannot succeed in your courses. What do you do if you cannot afford a computer and do not have a car to go to a library or cyber cafe? What do you do if your WiFi cuts out? Your paper doesn't save? Your printer breaks? In any of these situations, your grade could slip because you cannot use your technology. It is so important to use technology in a classroom but until it is one hundred percent reliable it should not be the only source or option for communication, assignments, and research. In the chapter there were four challenges outlined: finances to provide educational technology, time to learn to use the technology and teach about it, school culture allowing the technology, and the shift from teacher to facilitator of learning. I agree that these four challenges are prevalent in our schools and need to be considered while planning to use technology in my classroom.

I am excited to implement technology in my classroom. For some children, school is the only place where they will have the opportunity to use technology. I hope to have a classroom set of computers that my students will use for research for projects or for added knowledge. I hope to have a Smart Board or some similar technology to use for lectures and instruction because they allow more interaction than a classic computer and projector provide. By the time I enter a classroom as an educator, I hope that iPads or other tablets will be used instead of text books because they are lighter than textbooks to carry and also have all information in one place. Many tablets can also access the Internet which will give my students technology accessible at home. This class will give me ideas on how to use the Internet for classroom tools to teach my future students. I am excited for the future to see what technology will be available to use in a classroom setting.

A digital native is someone who was born into a world where technology always existed and was accessible. I am considered a digital native because I do not remember a time without technology, granted the technology was not as modern as today's. I agree that this title is fitting for my generation and those coming after because our world has always been a digital one. Those coming before my generation immigrated into the digital world and had to learn as they went have technology is used. All of the teachers I have had have been digital immigrants. Many times a teacher would ask a student to help figure out how to use an application like PowerPoint or how to find things on the Internet. I know that as a future educator I will be asking for help from my students as well as technology evolves in the near future.