Disclaimer: This is not a cool tech trick. This is me on my soapbox. If you want a tech trick, please refer to the archives. There's lots of great stuff there!
Day 1: So there I sat, in a conference, learning lots of new stuff. I was constantly texting, tweeting, sending emails, and taking notes in my wiki, which I use for PD. I have to admit, I was out of my element with this conference. The presenters talked about things I had never heard of before. So what did I do? I Googled it. No way I was going to raise my hand in the middle of a conference and ask the presenter what each term meant. There were lots of techie-looking people in that conference room that would laugh at me for being the "stupid one!" Luckily, I didn't have to risk that because Wikipedia answered my question everytime. I did all five of the above listed activities (gasp!) at the same time. I left that day feeling so much more confident in my abilities as a technology specialist. I've always been strong on the curriculum side, but this conference gave me the background from the tech side. I couldn't wait for the next day.
Day 2: That was when it happened. The battery on my laptop died. I had a new battery and was still calibrating it, so I couldn't charge my laptop in my hotel room when I first noticed. No problem - I could charge it during the conference. Well, I thought it wouldn't be a problem, anyway...
When I arrived at my first session, I looked around the edges of the room. There were no, none, zilch power outlets around the room! Still, I'm a problem solver, so I got out the iPhone.
You know how there are commercials on television depicting two unnamed cell phone companies battling for the best 3G network? I'd never had a problem, and thought the commercials were silly until that day. I was apparently in a 3G dead zone. Sending and receiving texts was one thing, but using Twitter, my browser, and even Facebook was not happening. I tried and tried, unfortunately to the point that I killed that battery, too. I only had one option left. The thought of having to take notes on traditional paper (with no table in front of me) was repulsive. I did it, but sure wasn't happy about it. At least I learned a lesson that day to always charge my laptop the night before.
This story might be something for you to chuckle at, or maybe even roll your eyes at. Regardless, this is the story of our students today. There are two kinds of people in the world today - digital natives and digital immigrants. I've said before I'm definitely a digital immigrant, not necessarily because of my age, but because of the small town that I grew up in. Imagine what it's like for our kids, who are definitely digital natives. Imagine what it must be like for them to sit through a lecture, to sit in a hard chair to read a story, to be so disengaged that they're thinking about anything and everything else. That's the "Power down" effect: when kids participate in critical thinking, problem solving, and engaging activities at home with video games or various computer software, then come to school and experience something that involves none of these skills.
Today's generation needs more. They can handle more. Their attention span only lasts about twenty minutes, and that's dependent upon their age. They are multi-taskers, regardless of whether we think they are or not. They want to create, explore, and figure things out. If we want our kids to learn, we have to meet them there.
Let's look at our options. Sometimes you have to lecture (sometimes). Sometimes you have to ask students to read (more often than lecturing). Why not use technology while students are involved in these activities? Need to lecture? Have the kids tweet the main points as they're listening. Have them keep notes in a collaborative document to share out with the rest of the class. They have to read. Instead of answering the questions at the back of the book, have them blog about their reading and reflect on what it means to them. They can comment each other's work and see how the same reading piece meant something else to another student. Need to teach a math process? After teaching the steps, make it real life. Connect it to buying video games, designing a room, playhouse, etc. I know it's not the way we learned, but did the way we learn prepare us for the 21st Century? Think about it - our primary education was geared toward agrarian societies of students that were going to grow up and work in factories. The really smart ones (or the ones whose parents made them) went to college. Did we ever really learn to think? To value ideas? Or were we just doing what the teacher asked so we didn't get in trouble?
I warned you, that was me on my soapbox. I could go on, but I'd just be repeating myself over and over. I have just one thought to leave with you as we consider the shift with technology and society - when I was a child, an abacus was a toy for preschoolers. Now I know several preschoolers who have iPods. How's that for progression?
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wallwishing
Isn't student engagement what we all wish for? Students can get tired of the same old thing, which can lead to disengagement. Wallwisher is an easy online tool that can be used in many different ways. It is so easy, in fact, you don't even have to create an account to use it!
To access a "wall," go to http://wallwisher.com/ and follow these steps:
1. Click "Build a Wall" in the top right hand corner.
3. Give your wall a name that will be listed in the URL. It can be anything! Just type in the field after the given URL. Choose your privacy settings listed below.
4. Choose a picture for your wall and Give it a title.
Wallwisher will then email you a message with the link to your wall. To add to it, just double click anywhere on the wall. Refresh your page as people add to it.
How can you use this in your classroom? Here are a few ideas:
1. Reflection
2. Brainstorming
3. Student created scoring guides
4. Collaborative writing
5. Feedback
6. Questioning
What are some ideas you have? Feel free to add to my wall:
http://wallwisher.com/wall/classideas
To access a "wall," go to http://wallwisher.com/ and follow these steps:
1. Click "Build a Wall" in the top right hand corner.
2. You will be asked to provide your name and email address.
4. Choose a picture for your wall and Give it a title.
Wallwisher will then email you a message with the link to your wall. To add to it, just double click anywhere on the wall. Refresh your page as people add to it.
How can you use this in your classroom? Here are a few ideas:
1. Reflection
2. Brainstorming
3. Student created scoring guides
4. Collaborative writing
5. Feedback
6. Questioning
What are some ideas you have? Feel free to add to my wall:
http://wallwisher.com/wall/classideas
Wordle-A Teacher's Tool
In high school, I applied for many scholarships. It was very competitive between my classmates. Many of these scholarships asked for a 500 word essay on various topics, sometimes just on the idea of "why I deserve this scholarship more than someone else." My mother typically proofread these essays for me. I remember the unfailing feedback I grew to expect: "You used (insert word here) too frequently. Go find some synonyms for it."
Those words have haunted me for over fifteen years. When writing papers for my undergrad degree, I would even count how many times I used the big idea in a paper so I could find synonyms as I went instead of rewriting afterward. By the time I finished my graduate degree, it was no longer an issue. I had spent over fifteen years developing the habit of not using the same word too many times. Now, how was I supposed to pass that gift on to my students without giving them haunting memories of their teacher standing over them, arms crossed, wearing a scowl? In addition to sparing them that nightmare, I'd also like them to identify with good word choice at an earlier age than I did. And so my search for a way to teach this skill continued until a teacher friend introduced me to Wordle.
Wordle is a "word cloud" generator. In simpler terms, it gathers all the words you've used in a piece of writing and randomly arranges them in something that looks like a cloud. Words that have been used more frequently than others are larger than the remaining words. Here's an example of what this blog's word cloud looks like thus far:
It seems as if I might need to look for a synonym for "word" judging by the size of this display.
Wordle is simple to use. Simply access the website at http://www.wordle.net. From the home page, you can browse saved word clouds from other users or create your own by clicking on the "Create" link. There are three options here - copy and paste in the text, enter the URL of any site that uses an RSS feed, or add in a Del.icio.us user's name to see his or her most common tags. For most classroom uses, choose the copy and paste option. After pasting in the text, click "Go." You will be redirected to a page with your word cloud. From here, you can change fonts, layouts, and colors. If necessary, this page can be printed or the cloud can be saved so that it can be accessed later.
Another use of word clouds includes comparing two articles. Want to find the most common theme in a meeting or even a speech? Take notes directly in Wordle and then generate a cloud. Here is an example of two Wikipedia articles. One is about FDR's New Deal and the other is about the government bank bailout of 2008.
By showing these two word clouds to students, you could generate a discussion about how these two events are connected, or, not connected.
Wordle is so diverse that it could be used in many different disciplines, as an engagement tool, and for a variety of activities to elicit higher order thinking. Options are endless!
Those words have haunted me for over fifteen years. When writing papers for my undergrad degree, I would even count how many times I used the big idea in a paper so I could find synonyms as I went instead of rewriting afterward. By the time I finished my graduate degree, it was no longer an issue. I had spent over fifteen years developing the habit of not using the same word too many times. Now, how was I supposed to pass that gift on to my students without giving them haunting memories of their teacher standing over them, arms crossed, wearing a scowl? In addition to sparing them that nightmare, I'd also like them to identify with good word choice at an earlier age than I did. And so my search for a way to teach this skill continued until a teacher friend introduced me to Wordle.
Wordle is a "word cloud" generator. In simpler terms, it gathers all the words you've used in a piece of writing and randomly arranges them in something that looks like a cloud. Words that have been used more frequently than others are larger than the remaining words. Here's an example of what this blog's word cloud looks like thus far:
It seems as if I might need to look for a synonym for "word" judging by the size of this display.
Wordle is simple to use. Simply access the website at http://www.wordle.net. From the home page, you can browse saved word clouds from other users or create your own by clicking on the "Create" link. There are three options here - copy and paste in the text, enter the URL of any site that uses an RSS feed, or add in a Del.icio.us user's name to see his or her most common tags. For most classroom uses, choose the copy and paste option. After pasting in the text, click "Go." You will be redirected to a page with your word cloud. From here, you can change fonts, layouts, and colors. If necessary, this page can be printed or the cloud can be saved so that it can be accessed later.
Another use of word clouds includes comparing two articles. Want to find the most common theme in a meeting or even a speech? Take notes directly in Wordle and then generate a cloud. Here is an example of two Wikipedia articles. One is about FDR's New Deal and the other is about the government bank bailout of 2008.
By showing these two word clouds to students, you could generate a discussion about how these two events are connected, or, not connected.
Wordle is so diverse that it could be used in many different disciplines, as an engagement tool, and for a variety of activities to elicit higher order thinking. Options are endless!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Technology and Your PLN
First things first - what's a PLN? PLN stands for personal learning networks. Among teachers, this acronym is very popular in our time. Gone are the days of subscribing to a professional journal to learn new ideas for your classroom or sitting in face to face late night classes towards a degree (or maybe to just learn something new). Teachers now have lifelong learning at their fingertips - it's called the Internet.
I remember when the idea of the Internet started surfacing. I lived in a small town (I think they just got online last year). It took so long for us to hear about the Internet many people had even graduated from car phones in bags to real cell phones! At that time, my Internet use was limited to researching vacation spots. I planned my entire wedding and honeymoon online (it's really not that impressive - I got married in Vegas). But there was no way I was going to book it online. Nope. The only way to handle transactions like that was to go see a travel agent and say, "Here's where I want to go. How much?"
So, what does this have to do with a PLN? Let me help you make the connection. Picture back in the day how new ideas were researched and implemented in classrooms. There were (and still are) lots of resources out there. Regional Professional Development Centers offer face to face workshops. If you were really serious, you actually enrolled in a grad class (or any night class). From my location, this meant you might have to drive an hour or more to get to the nearest university. And let's face it - professional journal articles are just not easy to read. We were much more likely to skim through those magazines that relied on blackline masters and cutesy ideas that were summed up in a paragraph just to add a little spice to our classes. And that's what we did. I can say that I have participated in all of the above.
Enter the Internet. Now I can Google anything! Need a lesson idea? Google can help you find the answer. I can download lessons, search for new ideas, and gather resources much faster than before. But that's still not a PLN.
Type define: network in your Google search engine and here's what you get:
an interconnected system of things or people
a system of intersecting lines or channels
communicate with and within a group
See a common idea? Interconnected. That's a PLN. My very own way to find information, ideas, to learn from a group(s) of educators with similar interests. Now, let's picture this B.I. (before Internet). Party line, anyone? Faculty lounge? All the teachers sitting around the lunch table actually discussing new ways to teach, ideas to try, ways to handle that "one kid?" Maybe. That might even happen in your school right now. If so, you are very blessed to work with such a great group of educators. But then the bell will ring and you'll have to go to recess duty. Maybe you can talk later.
Here's how you can develop your professional learning in a way that will enrich your teaching (and your students' learning) whenever you have time. Maybe it's after you put the kids to bed and you're in your pajamas. Maybe you go to school early to do a little work before everyone else gets there. Maybe you have 5 minutes at lunch or, if you have one of those new, fandangled "smartphones" you are waiting at the DMV to renew your tags (that is, unless you start doing that online, too).
Step 1: Get a Twitter account. I know you've heard about it because even the news stations use it now. In doing so, consider your purpose. You want to learn, right? List your information in your bio so that people understand that. Think about if you need to protect your tweets or not. If not, make sure you monitor your followers daily. (You'll get an email that says when someone is following you).
Who will you follow? Again, use the almighty Google. In searching "educators on Twitter" I received 3,310,000 results. Of course, I'm sure they're not all relevant. But that's a lot! The top hit was a blog linking to a wiki that had educators using Twitter, their purpose in using Twitter, and their username. Second hit - same thing, different wiki. Excellent resource!
Look at your followers closely. If the information they're giving you isn't what you need, see if someone else does provide that information. That's the reason we're doing this.
Reap the benefits of a lifelong learner while implementing new ideas in your classroom. Your kids will do great things!
Step 2: Do you use Facebook? Lots of teachers do, and they do this for their PLN. However, I do need a disconnect between my professional and personal life. Therefore, Facebook is personal, but Twitter and Classroom2.0 are professional. Classroom2.0 is a lot like Facebook and Myspace meshed together. Take a look - it's all teachers. You can follow people if you like, but the benefit of Classroom2.0 in my opinion is the groups. Search the groups that are there and see where common interests lie. You can blog, post to groups for ideas, and even sync it with your Twitter account. Benefit of Classroom2.0 over Twitter? More characters. Developing curriculum with people states (or even countries) away.
Step 3: Make a Del.icio.us account. I have three computers and an iPhone. I can't remember where I save things. I tried using folders for bookmarks, but if I was using another device, I couldn't do anything. If people I worked for asked for a link, I had to search for it and email them. Now, I just say, "It's in my Del.icio.us account. The tag is ____(fill in the blank here)." Now my bookmarks are held online. No worries when the computer crashes or when groups want to work together. We can search each other's resources easily.
These three collaboration tools will greatly benefit your PLN and your students' learning. The best part-they're quick, easy, and continuous. Never the same information. Always the latest news. Just remember - it's a network. Learning from others also means contributing. We're all in this together, right?
I remember when the idea of the Internet started surfacing. I lived in a small town (I think they just got online last year). It took so long for us to hear about the Internet many people had even graduated from car phones in bags to real cell phones! At that time, my Internet use was limited to researching vacation spots. I planned my entire wedding and honeymoon online (it's really not that impressive - I got married in Vegas). But there was no way I was going to book it online. Nope. The only way to handle transactions like that was to go see a travel agent and say, "Here's where I want to go. How much?"
So, what does this have to do with a PLN? Let me help you make the connection. Picture back in the day how new ideas were researched and implemented in classrooms. There were (and still are) lots of resources out there. Regional Professional Development Centers offer face to face workshops. If you were really serious, you actually enrolled in a grad class (or any night class). From my location, this meant you might have to drive an hour or more to get to the nearest university. And let's face it - professional journal articles are just not easy to read. We were much more likely to skim through those magazines that relied on blackline masters and cutesy ideas that were summed up in a paragraph just to add a little spice to our classes. And that's what we did. I can say that I have participated in all of the above.
Enter the Internet. Now I can Google anything! Need a lesson idea? Google can help you find the answer. I can download lessons, search for new ideas, and gather resources much faster than before. But that's still not a PLN.
Type define: network in your Google search engine and here's what you get:
an interconnected system of things or people
a system of intersecting lines or channels
communicate with and within a group
See a common idea? Interconnected. That's a PLN. My very own way to find information, ideas, to learn from a group(s) of educators with similar interests. Now, let's picture this B.I. (before Internet). Party line, anyone? Faculty lounge? All the teachers sitting around the lunch table actually discussing new ways to teach, ideas to try, ways to handle that "one kid?" Maybe. That might even happen in your school right now. If so, you are very blessed to work with such a great group of educators. But then the bell will ring and you'll have to go to recess duty. Maybe you can talk later.
Here's how you can develop your professional learning in a way that will enrich your teaching (and your students' learning) whenever you have time. Maybe it's after you put the kids to bed and you're in your pajamas. Maybe you go to school early to do a little work before everyone else gets there. Maybe you have 5 minutes at lunch or, if you have one of those new, fandangled "smartphones" you are waiting at the DMV to renew your tags (that is, unless you start doing that online, too).
Step 1: Get a Twitter account. I know you've heard about it because even the news stations use it now. In doing so, consider your purpose. You want to learn, right? List your information in your bio so that people understand that. Think about if you need to protect your tweets or not. If not, make sure you monitor your followers daily. (You'll get an email that says when someone is following you).
Who will you follow? Again, use the almighty Google. In searching "educators on Twitter" I received 3,310,000 results. Of course, I'm sure they're not all relevant. But that's a lot! The top hit was a blog linking to a wiki that had educators using Twitter, their purpose in using Twitter, and their username. Second hit - same thing, different wiki. Excellent resource!
Look at your followers closely. If the information they're giving you isn't what you need, see if someone else does provide that information. That's the reason we're doing this.
Reap the benefits of a lifelong learner while implementing new ideas in your classroom. Your kids will do great things!
Step 2: Do you use Facebook? Lots of teachers do, and they do this for their PLN. However, I do need a disconnect between my professional and personal life. Therefore, Facebook is personal, but Twitter and Classroom2.0 are professional. Classroom2.0 is a lot like Facebook and Myspace meshed together. Take a look - it's all teachers. You can follow people if you like, but the benefit of Classroom2.0 in my opinion is the groups. Search the groups that are there and see where common interests lie. You can blog, post to groups for ideas, and even sync it with your Twitter account. Benefit of Classroom2.0 over Twitter? More characters. Developing curriculum with people states (or even countries) away.
Step 3: Make a Del.icio.us account. I have three computers and an iPhone. I can't remember where I save things. I tried using folders for bookmarks, but if I was using another device, I couldn't do anything. If people I worked for asked for a link, I had to search for it and email them. Now, I just say, "It's in my Del.icio.us account. The tag is ____(fill in the blank here)." Now my bookmarks are held online. No worries when the computer crashes or when groups want to work together. We can search each other's resources easily.
These three collaboration tools will greatly benefit your PLN and your students' learning. The best part-they're quick, easy, and continuous. Never the same information. Always the latest news. Just remember - it's a network. Learning from others also means contributing. We're all in this together, right?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Video Conversions
You Tube. Fun website. It has great material that can be used for classrooms. Many times when kids just don't "get it," you can find a clip that makes the lightbulb go off.
Two problems - it can't be accessed from school (for good reason) and it can't be trusted when we want to keep our kids safe.
Don't fret just yet - with a little planning, you'll still be able to access those YouTube videos that will assist in your instruction. This is where the video converters come into the picture, and there are several options out there. Depending on what works for you, you can use Video Converter, Media Convert, or Zamzar. I've tried them all, and the one I find that works the most consistently is Zamzar. With Zamzar, you can convert not only YouTube videos, but any file on your computer to almost any file type. Watch this for the easy steps: Using Zamzar to Save Videos.
Two problems - it can't be accessed from school (for good reason) and it can't be trusted when we want to keep our kids safe.
Don't fret just yet - with a little planning, you'll still be able to access those YouTube videos that will assist in your instruction. This is where the video converters come into the picture, and there are several options out there. Depending on what works for you, you can use Video Converter, Media Convert, or Zamzar. I've tried them all, and the one I find that works the most consistently is Zamzar. With Zamzar, you can convert not only YouTube videos, but any file on your computer to almost any file type. Watch this for the easy steps: Using Zamzar to Save Videos.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Creating Podcasts
It seems like everyone is podcasting something these days. I really like to listen to Ed Tech Talk and SMARTBoard Lessons Podcast. But what really makes a podcast? It's not simply sharing video or audio files on the web. By uploading that information to a website, people still have to be told to go find that file and download it. A true podcast sends the file straight to you without you looking for it.
At the top of most blogs, there should be an RSS feed link with the universal orange-curved-line icon. By subscribing to a podcast, blog, etc. with an RSS feed, the beauty of the Internet does the rest of the work for you. This blog can be subscribed to by scrolling to the bottom. Click on the button and choose how you'd like to subscribe. It will send the new file or post straight to you. You didn't have time to go search for information, anyway, right?
So, with this example, we see how great a podcast can be for our professional careers. But what about our students? We want to provide the same benefit to them and even their parents, too, right? That's where podcasting comes in handy.
To start, you need to open your website folder and create a new page as an .xml file.
I like the directions given from "Make RSS Feeds." They are very easy to follow and given in step by step form. You can simply begin a post (the file that you plan to podcast), and then copy and paste after that.
Watch this video for a step by step visual.
Once you've done this, you're almost ready to go. You need a "host" site that will syndicate everything you add to your website, including the xml file. I like Feedburner. It's very easy to use. First step - create an account. It's basically follow the bouncing ball after that. The video at the bottom of this post will walk you through it.
At this point, if you're going to hand out your web address to people and encourage them to subscribe, you're done. However, as we discussed earlier, it's all about easy these days. Here's how to submit your podcast to iTunes so people can search for it themselves and subscribe. This will also help you achieve a larger audience.
At the top of most blogs, there should be an RSS feed link with the universal orange-curved-line icon. By subscribing to a podcast, blog, etc. with an RSS feed, the beauty of the Internet does the rest of the work for you. This blog can be subscribed to by scrolling to the bottom. Click on the button and choose how you'd like to subscribe. It will send the new file or post straight to you. You didn't have time to go search for information, anyway, right?
So, with this example, we see how great a podcast can be for our professional careers. But what about our students? We want to provide the same benefit to them and even their parents, too, right? That's where podcasting comes in handy.
To start, you need to open your website folder and create a new page as an .xml file.
I like the directions given from "Make RSS Feeds." They are very easy to follow and given in step by step form. You can simply begin a post (the file that you plan to podcast), and then copy and paste after that.
Watch this video for a step by step visual.
Once you've done this, you're almost ready to go. You need a "host" site that will syndicate everything you add to your website, including the xml file. I like Feedburner. It's very easy to use. First step - create an account. It's basically follow the bouncing ball after that. The video at the bottom of this post will walk you through it.
At this point, if you're going to hand out your web address to people and encourage them to subscribe, you're done. However, as we discussed earlier, it's all about easy these days. Here's how to submit your podcast to iTunes so people can search for it themselves and subscribe. This will also help you achieve a larger audience.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Blogging for Beginners
What is your purpose in incorporating blogs in your classroom? Will students collaborate with each other or with the teacher? Describe how this will enhance learning.
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