Barbara Powell-Schager's MEDT7462
Course Home Page
MEDT7462: Internet Tools, Resources, and Issues
A study of various Internet tools, resources, and issues as related to K-12 education. Strategies for integrating the Internet into the curriculum will be included.
Assignment 3.1 - Creating MEDT Course Home Page
This was a relatively easy assignment because I had taken the Web Design course this summer. At first learning how to use DreamWeaver was an arduous process, but as I've learned the basic concepts of web design and cascading style sheets I have come to truly enjoy it.
Assignment 3.2 - Gmail Account and CutePDF
This summer, I created a gmail account because I to a new phone although I haven't really used it. It was interesting to explore the features of gmail. Three that I could see using instructionally were the "Chat" feature, Buzz, and task list. The Chat feature I envision as a way to have a class communicate with another class at another school perhaps in another city/state or even another country. This would be a great way to share infnormation about say, weather/climate (4th grade GPS) effects on culture or commerce (3rd grade GPS). The Buzz feature allows the user to share photos, videos, web site, etc. This could be used to share ideas and information about any topic similar to a wiki except students would not have the ability to alter each other's content. The third feature, the task list, has fabuluous implications for helping teach students learn how to manage their own learning. Students would create a task list (that would mimic the task list for an authentic learning assignment) then they would be responsible for checking off each component of the project as they worked through it. (Note: I understood this assignment to mean to look at only features inherent to Gmail and not to other Google apps.)
Assignment 3.3 - GoogleCalendar
I think there are many potential applications for GoogleCalendars in schools. I, for one, use to maintain a Volunteer schedule for my library. Although this isn't for instructional purposes. Instructional uses I can think of are: posting assignment due dates so students and parents could have easy access to this information, having older students sign up for consultations when needed, or if projects are going to be presented to class then students could schedule their presentation time. A calendar can be embedded into a teacher's blog/web page too. This would make it very readily visible to all interested parties. Students working on group projects could schedule meeting times. There are loads of ways it could be used.
Assignment 3.4 - Creating a Blog with Blogger
Blogging has a multitude of pedagological uses. At my school every teacher has a blog. They mostly use it as web presence for their class. Although this doesn't make full use of blogging, it is a start. I have a media center blog that is functioning as one way communication. But, I plan on starting (either a blog or a wiki - haven't decided which would be best) for my Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Team. The team competes against students at other school answering factual questions about the Georgia Children's Book Award nominees. Thus, to prepare for competition, we could use the blog to share book reviews, summaries, information about characters, creating and sharing practice questions. With the polling gadget in Blogger, one could conduct favorities polls for the books. Links to authors' websites, and more could also be done.
This is merely one application of blogging. It could be used by homeroom teacher to post "Math Question of the Day/Week" and students could post their response showing how they would solve the problem. Or, as media specialist, I could post a "Research Question of the Week" that would seek student answers containing a reference of where they found their answer. Students and parents could also use the blog to ask questions of the teacher. Being able to use an aggregator. Parents could keep up-to-date on news from the site.
Podcast and Vodcast clips could also be posted to a blog....the different uses are almost limitless.
Assignment 3.5 - Building a Wiki with Google Sites
Above is the link to the Wiki I created in Google. It was very easy to use. I could see many pedagogical uses for wikis. They can be used by teachers to collaborate with one another on building lesson plans and sharing other resources (rubrics, handouts, websites, etc.). Teachers can use them with their students to build a community of learners, where they can collaboratively write a story. Each week a different student could be responsible to write the "next chapter." Students could peer edit each others work here. This is also a great tool for sharing math problem solving techniques. Students could post their steps in problem solving. There could be words or phrases of the day that students could be responsible for defining, illustrating, providing sentences for. There could be a question and answer forum, where students could post questions about things they don't understand. Instead of the teacher responding to their queries their classmates could be responsible to supply answers. Wikis can be great places for teachers to conference with their students, leave them notes about what they should think about next in the process. Of course, other students could also provide feedback to other students too. Because a wiki can be shared publicly, it is a way that students can publish their work.
The Google Wiki was very easy/intuitive. There were many templates to choose from so it was simple to individualize/personalize your wiki. They had many ready-made layouts to choose from that had examples of what types of information to include in the different pages. There was the ability to create links, embed video and audio clips. Also, there were numerous widgets to choose from, or if there was one you wanted to use that wasn't offered, it automatically provided you with a dialog box so you could easily embed the code. Google wikis also have lots of controls that the author can choose from. For example, you could make the wiki public or private, you can invite others to contribute or to have controlling rights. In many ways I found it a bit easier to use than wikispaces that I've used in the past.
Assignment 3.6 - Using Aggregators
This was an interesting tool. I selected three things to follow. I like the idea of automatically receiving information...it coming to me rather than me going to find it. This is especially true since it is hard to have time do these kinds of things.I do have a couple of magazines that automatically email when next edition is out with embedded link. I really like that too. The benefits of the aggregator are that it saves the articles/feeds that you star they are there for you to refer to later. (This is partcularly useful since so often there is a vague remembrance of something you read but didn't need at the time and now can't find. This feature enables you to "find" it when you do actually need it. I must confess that I had a problem which was that I read about 1/2 the articles and stopped with intent to come back and read more at future time. Well it went ahead and marked all as read and they were automatically deleted. I have to search around and figure out how to get articles back and how to prevent this from happening again. Overall, nice way to stay up-to-date with professional journals/interests.
I had used GoogleDocs last spring in the video production class. It was amazing at how easy it was to use and the fact that four people could collaborate online and never have to meet face-to-face to accomplish what we needed (write a script for news broadcast). A the time I hadn't fulled explored its capabilities. This assignment gave me the opportunity to do that. It really is quite powerful. Its draw tools, spell check, word look up, translator (despite fact that it is not a good translator), and formating features. In addition there are spreadsheet, presenter, and form apps as part of the GoogleDocs suite. I also liked the autosave feature, and easy at which you can manage who has access to the doc. All of these features make it a great tool for schools. In addition to the collaborative aspect the cost makes it a very attractive medium for teacher-teacher collaboration, whether within the same school or across the world, and for student-student and student-teacher interaction.
I did encounter a problem with only getting one classmate to write to my doc despite having invited 6 colleagues on Thursday. I will make another pdf of the GoogleDoc when I get additional posts.
Assignment 3.8 Behavioral Objectives
Dr. Bray, I have edited my behavioral objectives per your recommendation and have re-uploaded.
As I was reading and working this assignment, I was reminded of learning and using "Understanding Backward Design" (UBD) that we were taught as part of inservices delivered to the staff at my school. It is understanding what you really want the students to know before you create the lesson and write the lesson plan. It seems like that is what you would naturally do, but in fact, it isn't necessarily the way it happens. Sometimes you get a "cool idea" and make it fit into what you are trying to teach when in fact it is not the most appropriate way to teach the intended content. I really like the clarity that behavioral objectives bring, particularly the use of observable verbs instead of using abstract terms (e.g., understand, appreciate, etc.).
Assignment 3.9 Online Presentation
It was a bit difficult to get three of us together to work on the presentation; that was a bit nerve-wracking, but once we'd got a third person. Off we went.. It was decided to use GoogleDocs presentation to create it the presentation so we could collaborate more readily. This proved to be work quite well. Althugh the GoogleDocs presentation software is not as robust as MS-Powerpoint's and we couldn't figure out how to set timings. Uploading to slideshare was extremely simply. I genuinely intend to use this tool professionally. Although we have a blog, we don't have much storage space so I will use the embed code feature to llink to my slideshare presentations. I don't foresee me using it to upload student presentations....at least not just yet....perhaps in the future. Features that made me believe this was a good educational tool were: the ability to set privacy/groups, the widgets that allow you to embed either directly or playlists into your blog, and also the "feeds" feature. Thought I would try to embed the code here to see how it well works:
3.10 Social Bookmarking with Delicious
This is a great tool it is easy to add bookmarks (much easier than adding them to my blog which takes not less than 5 minutes open). Tagging is a great way to organize them too. This way things that have multiple purposes can be in all the categories they belong and thus won't get overlooked. The ability to share and follow other's tags is really terrific...because you get the best of their surfing efforts as well as your own. Educationally, it is a great tool, because you can tell students to access your Delicious account and then tell them what tags to follow or sort by so the information they need will be right at their fingertips. (I had played with this once before, but never really got hooked on it. I think that just changed. :-) The direct link to my delicious account is at: http://www.delicious.com/pbb13185
Wow...that was hard. I am not a natural at drawing in Sketchup. I created a VERY simple drawing after watching the first four introductory screencasts. I am certain there are many wonderful applications in education...I'm glad I'm a media specialist and can easily escape feeling guilty over not using this tool. Honestly, though it does have some wonderful applications: math (geometry), interior design, and architecture, designing your classroom, neighborhood, etc. It has some very sophisticated cool features. I liked the ability to create fills such as brick, fabric, carpet, etc. It also works with GoogleEarth so you can place your object(s) into a real location. I played around with putting my chair at UWG but it become so small that I was concerned you would miss the fact that I had actually created an object. I think students could study building structures from different time periods/locale and could "build" replicas in Sketchup and then have to place them in their place in their correct locale as a form of assessment. In a very constructivist way, students, could use it to design something that could really be built. For instance, at my school, they are working on a grant to get new playscape equipment. Students could be asked to compete to see who could "sketch-up" the best design. Or teams of students could survey the school, and based on all student population input, they could design something that would have the widest appeal. 3-point perspective is also taught in art. So, that is another way this could be used. The applications are varied and authentic. Great tool!
3.12 Photo Editing and Sharing with Picassa
Well, that was tons of fun! It didn't take long to down load and had all these fun Halloween effects that I'd editted my photo with (a picture of my kids driving off early in the morning to go college). I choose not to post it on the Internet. At any rate, this is a great educational tool. I can see editing a picture in some strange way and then having students write a story based on the picture. Or better yet, have students edit their own photos, perhaps have them age themselves. Then write a story about what they wish/predict will happen during the course of their life time. Or, have them go out and take pictures of simple tools they see around them in every day life. Then have them make a Simple Machines slidehshow. Or, a "Math is Everywhere" presentation. The ideas are endless.
This is a very simple tool that allows you to translate any text. When exploring it a bit more, you realize that it is more powerful that it appears at first glance. It has the capacity to translate whole websites (I tried translating a pasta recipe from Italian to English. It was very easy and useful. Anglea P., one of the students in the class had a conversation with me about translators, saying that they are generally NOT very good and to be careful when using them because the message can become very mis-translated. So, I would use it for simple translations of communications (memos, etc.) that I wanted to send to parents, or even to a new student who didn't speak English. We could communicate back and forth sitting in front of the computer. This could be a way to help the student also with learning English. Likewise, I could see using it to help students become familiar with words in other languages, and the common roots/origins and connections between different languages.
It has been a long time since I've used this program and there are many nice new features, specifically the ability to record a tour. I think Google Earth has so many educational applications. Certainly it is an awesome tool for teaching geography in the broadest sense. It has the ability to look at the topography, regions, and culture from the all the photos. The 3D photos are a wonderful way for a class to take a virtual field trip. Or the ability to use the "time slider" feature to make the view more historical accurate is a powerful social studies tool. You can have your students follow the paths of the great explorers, analyze waves of immigration, or examine life on the Galapagos Islands and discuss Darwinism. With the night sky, moon, and Mars features it is a wonderful way to explore outter space and study astronomy. For literature you can use it to explore the setting of the story. In math students can track how far it is from a hotel to a restaurant or attraction. Then how much they would spend.
3.15 Custom Searches
This was an interesting tool. I really had a difficult time conceptualizing how it was going to work until I actually used it. I didn't realize how powrful Google searching is. The fact that it is able to search so deeply into a website is awesome and nerving wracking. As you can see I choose to create a "search engine" for finding literary information. I felt I have been searching for web 2.0 tools, but neglecting more traditional content...and the wonders of digitized books. There are lovely collections of copyright free beautiful old books out there that are truly delightful. Also,links to authors and illustrators, and book clubs for avid and reluctant readers. I have a boys reading club...so I added lots of links to things that would be of special interest to these readers. This is a wonderful way to direct your students searching while still having them "conduct searches" it is a wonderful scaffold; a step up from providing them will teacher reviewed/approved links (all that is allowed for elementary students in my county) prior to allowing them full and free reighn of the Internet. This can apply to any content area that you want to teach students about. It can help them develop their searching skills while still protecting them from undesirable sites. It helps direct thsem to the most useful site as well. Here are my three searches:
Here's the search engine too, if you'd like to give it a whirl:
This is a wonderrful way to capture data from students, teachers, whomever. For students, you can use it test their knowledge of content, survey them about their thoughts on topics, etc. For teachers, you can use it to assess their opinions about a varriety of topics (ex.do you want to have the school Christmas tat the school, elsewhere, etc., what are your technology preferences in school and why, etc.) For parents you can use it to capture their opinions on any number of topics (ex. do you want to donate xyz for this project, or would you rather do uvw). Because it is online, it is not limited by time and place. Also, because responses can be anonymous you increase the likelihood of getting honest feedback. I have embedded tests in the webQuest I created in the Web Design class, I am planning on using these in January with fourth graders when that unit of study will be taught. I am anxious to see how well it works in practice. Thanks for sharing this great tool
The ASSURE lesson plan template offers a concise yet complete framework for creating a lesson. It helps the teacher focus their instruction on what students will learn from a behaviorial perspective. This is very beneficial and fits nicely with a constructivist teaching style. It also makes the lesson something others can readily follow. I learned about the tool (Elementary CitationMaker) I will be teaching while I was exploring other media specialist's blogs for the blogging assignment. So, I am still fairly new at using it. As I was preparing the ASSURE lesson, I learned about 2 other features of the app I had not noticed before: its alphabetizes and can create a web doc of the references (very handy). I think this was one of the best discussion forums because I learned about other tools. I am really looking forward to the face-to-face class where I will get to learn these tools in more detail.