It took me some time but after countless “Google” searches and many unsuccessful attempts I finally created my avatar! Hip, hip hooray. This endeavor would not have been possible without the help of weeworld. I must also give credit to http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/Online+tools . Please check out these incredible resources.
It is my intention to continue blogging. Instead of clogging up my colleagues’ school e-mail inboxes with messages from me, I think the blog will be more beneficial. The blog will allow me to introduce ideas, websites, and resources for them to use. It will be my communication with them as a Technology Coach when I cannot meet with them personally or time constraints prevent our ability to meet.
As a podcast creator here is my take on podcasting – “If I can do it, anybody can do it!” It’s true – really. I’ve listened to podcasts from second graders to renowned authors. Podcasts can be created by anybody, for anybody for a variety of purposes. The equipment needed is minimal and its benefits are many – review, reinforcement, information, demonstration – to name a few.
Videos are great for the visual learner. For example, one of the links for our Web 2.0 class was a visual tutorial about Google Maps. The amount of educational videos is staggering. You could spend the whole day just watching videos.
When we talk about differentiated instruction for our students certainly podcasts and videos would be awesome, additional resources beyond textbooks.
A thought to ponder – “If you see and hear and say and do it, you have a 90% chance of remembering.” Source – Richard May, Studying and Retention
As with all of the Web 2.0 tools we have looked at thus far each one had its own benefits and challenges and wikis certainly fall into this category too!
Benefits:
Challenges:
When trying to decide if the use of a wiki is beneficial consider the following: purpose, audience, and pros/cons.
I really like what Andy Carvin said in this article Wikipedia in the Classroom: Consensus Among Educators?
“I explored the possibility of having teachers assigning teams of students to tackle a particular Wikipedia entry and dissect it. Does the entry cite any sources? If so, are they primary sources, secondary sources, other reference materials, blogs, etc? Students would then conduct their own research into the topic, meticulously examining multiple sources in order to reach a consensus. Quoting from my original post:Once the Wikipedia entry has been fact-checked, the teacher creates a Wikipedia login for the class. They go to the entry’s talk page and present their findings, laying out every idea that needs to be corrected. Then, they edit the actual entry to make the corrections, with all sources cited. Similarly, for all the parts of the entry they’ve verified as accurate, they list sources confirming it. That way, each idea presented in the Wikipedia entry has been verified and referenced – hopefully with multiple sources. Get enough classrooms doing this, you kill several birds with one stone: Wikipedia’s information gets better, students help give back to the Net by improving the accuracy of an important online resource, and teachers have a way to make lemons into lemonade, turning Wikipedia from a questionable information source to a powerful tool for information literacy.”
As I went back to the planning template for the Web 2.0 course, I realized that the initial RSS feeds I had selected were more for teachers than students. So…. I created more RSS feeds that related specifically to Internet Safety. Internet Safety will be the topic for the planning template for the 2.0 course.
Honestly, it has been a wonderfully, frustrating day – but I think I’m getting the hang of it!
The number of educational blogs out there is unbelievable! I found that there were a number of sites where I liked just “snippets” of information and the rest was … But the search continues. Maybe I just haven’t hit the right one yet!
Well, I have now officially entered the “BlogWorld”! And I don’t mind telling you that it is very overwhelming and a bit scary. These past few hours have been quite an adventure. Hopefully this will be the first of many.
