My Web 2.0

Laura Moore showed me Quizlet last spring, and I tried it out for the second semester exam review.  I was pleased to see three levels of learning:

1. Recognition:  Students work with “flashcards” to familiarize and learn the vocabulary.  They can be prompted by either the term or the definition.
2. Recall:  After the vocabulary is learned, students can test themselves in various formats.
3. Application:  Finally, two games are available for them to play using what they have learned.

Although I have used Quia for years, I will also use Quizlet next year and see which program is better.

For some unknown reason, I was unable to open presentations on my home computer so I had to drive to school to complete this assignment. (I was coming down anyway…) I enjoyed watching four short presentations by Chris Harbeck entitled “Release the Hounds.” His presentation on using scribe posts is a good place for inexperienced Web 2.0 teachers to begin. Each day one student summarizes the day’s lesson on a blog. This responsibility is shared by all students in the class. Click here to learn about the idea, instructions, and mechanics for using scribe posts. I recommend that all content area teachers watch “Release the Hounds.” I can foresee posting students’ E-portfolios, Growing Posts, and other projects on Edline or the web for parents to see.

Thing # 12 took me too long to complete; however, I hope to learn from my mistakes. When I downloaded photos to my computer, the original location did not copy…only a long number which Flickr does not recognize! So…I spent hours (no hyperbole here) trying to find each original picture again. I know that the links on my wiki page are not in order as they appear in the slideshow. I will try to fix that later when my headache is gone. Despite this frustration, I did enjoy perusing the photos.

Click here to see the product filled with trial and error.

Reading about Flickr reminds me that my hobby used to be photography. I realize that I miss taking pictures. I especially enjoyed taking pictures of people. I like this photo entitled “Reading Time.” This girl has the expression that I love to see in my students when they are reading. I explored a few lesson plans using Flickr. I liked the vocabulary lesson by Teacher Dude. It is a great lesson illustrating the similarities and differences among synonyms. A couple of other language arts lessons asked students to make trading cards using www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php. Before asking my students to use Flickr in a class assignment, I would have to decide how their work would be published. Printing photos would be a nightmare. I think their work could be saved to my folder on the network. I would need to talk to David or Dwayne about how to facilitate this. I hope that my first use of Flickr will be taking pictures of my new 7th graders in August!

Until today I never heard of CC.  I’m delighted to know that CC will allow me to borrow others’ artwork and ideas; however, I am still confused about how it works.  How does a person know what the conditions of the CC license are?  If a photo has a CC logo, does this mean I have permission to use it?  Perhaps these questions will be answered in later lessons.  I enjoy including photos with my visual presentations.  I hope that CC will free me to download pictures and images other than overused clip art!

Is there a wiki in my future? Yes. Currently my brother on the west coast writes a weekly column for a local newspaper. Every weekend he sends his draft to my east coast brother to provide the heading and to his southern sister to edit for spelling and grammar….lots of email going on….and sometimes the document is altered due to our different word processing programs. So…we need a wiki! Will my two older brothers listen to their baby sister’s suggestion? We’ll see….

The wiki which impressed me the most is Grazing for Digital Natives. Wow! I will definitely explore this wiki project some more. I am blown away by this technology!

I especially liked the organization and easy navigation of Room 15 Wiki. I would like to model my wiki project after this one.

I hesitate to criticize anyone’s wiki when I have not yet created one; however, I was disappointed in Schools in the Past. I would like to have seen a year next to each comment and the comments arranged in chronological order. I don’t know if this organization was possible.

As I look at wiki projects, I wonder if wikis can be incorporated into Edline.  I want to improve my communication with parents and students, but I do not want to have too many means of communication  to monitor and manage: email, voice mail, blogs, wikis, etc.   I want to use this technology to simplify my life, not make it more complicated.

For the past several months I have enjoyed reading articles from Dyslexia Tutor: News Resources. This week’s treasure included a number of websites related to differentiating instruction in the classroom. I have spent a couple of hours perusing one particular site: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/di.htm. This web site for teachers includes many resources to assist in differentiating instruction in the classroom. The web sites are categorized under the following: Learning Styles, Instructional Theory, Practical Tips for the Classroom, and Sample Units and Lessons. I began my reading by taking two quick inventories which confirmed what I know about myself as a learner. I will probably use one or both of these inventories with my students at the beginning of the year: Learning Styles Inventory Test and Paragon Learning Style Inventory. Next, I signed up to renew a membership to All Kinds of Minds. Finally, I looked at a number of sites appropriate for middle school instruction. Two I found of interest are Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners.

Although I am familiar with Google Reader, I am delighted to subscribe to the New YorkTimes Book Review. The eight categories of best sellers facilitate searching for one’s favorite genre or format. In my first search, I found a review by Stephen King of Eric Clapton’s autobiography. How cool is that?  I know my age and ignorance will show in my next question….Is this subscription free?  Will I receive all of the Sunday book reviews?  (After spending an entire day at my computer reading blogs and book reviews, I may have to invest in a better desk chair.  Any advice?)

I have spent the morning experiencing my own Sustained Silent Reading of blogs. Reading blogs is time-consuming; therefore, I will be brief when I write my blogs.

• Reading blogs will change my habits. I will think twice before I take another plastic bag out of a store.
• Reading blogs will change my expectations of students’ work. Is this homework assignment necessary? Can I show students another way to create PowerPoints? Do my assignments allow students to be creative?
• Reading blogs will change my thinking. Anne Davis’s “rationale for educational blogging” presents at least a dozen reasons for teaching and using blogs with my students. I look forward to exploring this new genre of communication.

Since deciding to take this class, I have become aware of discussions related to the use of the internet in teaching and in learning. First of all, I just finished reading Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf. This book has changed my thinking about reading; therefore, it will change my teaching of reading. Concerning computers, Maryanne Wolf writes,

Will unguided information lead to an illusion of knowledge and thus curtail the more difficult, time-consuming, critical thought processes that lead to knowledge itself…what would be lost to us if we replaced the skills honed by the reading brain with those now being formed in our new generation of “digital natives,” who sit and read transfixed before a screen? (p. 221)

Last month I attended the International Reading Association’s conference in Atlanta. One of the sessions I attended was entitled” An Examination of Adolescents’ Out of School Internet Practices.” This session helped me realize that my students may not know how to use the internet effectively. I hope that this class will help me design a unit which I can teach in the fall. Finally, I know that the internet will continue to enrich my life and provide avenues for learning which I could not have foreseen twenty years ago.