November 9, 2014

Post #2 Web 2.0 Technology Blog New Literacies and the Big Shifts

Clearly, educators play a vital role ensuring that students are prepared to be productive in the 21^st Century. In a blog post, discuss the challenges educators will have in making sure their students have the literacies they will need to reach this goal. How will educators have to re-think about content and curriculum in order to promote literacy?

One of the biggest challenges educators face is keeping current with the changing technology. We have to remain lifelong learners, and continue to embrace the new technologies ourselves. Students still need to be taught the foundations and the core subjects. However they need to be taught with 21^st century tools and in a 21^st century context, in a way that is useful and meaningful. The technology cannot be taught in isolation, rather concurrently with the core subjects. In order for teachers to do this confidently and successfully, teachers have to have a comfort level with the technology themselves. Continuous professional development, provided by the school district, with resources available to the teachers is a must. The school districts must provide the training and the resources for the teachers, especially those who aren’t confident in their use of technology. Too many districts go about implementing the technology backwards, by putting it in the students’ hands first and expecting the teachers to use it (when they have no idea what to do with it). Teachers have to be given the chance to “play” with the hardware first, get to know it, understand how it works, and then they’ll use it with the students. They also have to maintain the on-site teacher in-service programs where the staff members who know how to use the technology train everyone.  Giving educators the support they need will ensure that the programs will succeed.

Sorry ... when I re-read this I see I got on my soapbox a bit ... can you tell what kinds of issues we're facing??? LOL

November 9, 2014

Module 12: More Web 2.0 Tools

• Think back on all the Web 2.0 tools that you explored and investigated throughout this course. Which one really stood out?  
• Describe the tool and how you would like to engage your students with this technology.

Wow - there were so many exciting tools we explored in this course. Some of the ones that really stood out for me in this module were Facebook and Twitter (which I've been using, but the more I read about them the more I learn about them), Wordle, Voice Thread, and Prezi. In previous modules, there have been Edmodo, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, Delicious, Educlipper, and Voki. Which one stands out really depends upon what grade level or type of project that happens to be coming to my mind at the moment.

For right now, let me focus on Voki. I would like to use Voki to engage my students in reading and technology, by having them create an avatar to look like a character in a book they've recently read. This character would then tell us about the book (from the character's perspective).

November 8, 2014

Podcasting

I've used Audacity before, so I was excited to see that was one of the tools we were using in this segment of our course. It is a free tool (always a good thing for educators) and it works well. 

I created a basic intro-to-podcasting project. I wrote a Haiku about Thanksgiving and typed it into PowerPoint, using 4 slides. The first slide is the title slide, and each like of the Haiku (there are 3 lines) is on its own slide. Then I used Google images to find an image for each slide, and put that image as the background for each slide. Using audacity, I recorded myself reading the Haiku. Each slide is its own separate recording. Then I inserted each recording onto each slide, making it play automatically. Then I added transitions and animations, and recorded the slide show to play automatically. After saving the slide show, I also saved it as a Windows Movie Maker file.  I've done projects like this with my students in the past, which target a multitude of ELA as well as NETS-S standards, therefore being a rigorous, as well as enriching project for students and one that they love.

For another example, I've done a Rainforest animal research project, also using audacity and PowerPoint, where students research an animal from the rainforest. Then they fill out a script (this is for 2nd graders so I give them a basic script). They type in the basics like I am (student's name) mystery guest. I am (type of animal - reptile, amphibian, etc.). I live in (type of habitat, continent, etc.). I eat (types of foods). There are a few other pieces of the script that help the students fill out other pertinent and interesting facts about their animal. Then they end with Can you guess who I am?  The students read their script a few times to practice, then record using Audacity. They insert their clip into PowerPoint. At the end of the lesson, one of the second grade classes will play their podcasts for another second grade class and the students will try to guess the animals. (Most of the students in their own classes, by now, will know their own classmates animals.)

While the Olympics were going on, I had 3rd graders do podcasts about Olympic sports and athletes, reporting on facts about sports and athletes that were competing that year. They used a reporter-style in their podcast.

I find them a very motivating project to use with students, and they target a great number of Common Core and 21st century skills!

November 8, 2014

Wow. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake. Photo sharing would be the EASIEST of all of the assignments. I ended up spending hours on this one, and I’m still not happy with my progress!  I have to say I’m a photo-site junkie. I’ve been using Shutterfly for years. I’ve been saving my photos to Shutterfly since about 2003 and if that site ever goes down I’m toast. I’ve make dozens of photo books, helped other people make photo books, and set up photo sharing sites on Shutterfly. In fact, right now, my son’s high school football team is using Shutterfly for that very purpose. The mom who is the team photographer takes literally thousands of photos of each game and uploads them to the share site. Actually, anyone who has access to the share site can upload photos. Also, anyone with access to the share site can view all of the photos and do what they’d like with those photos, including downloading, saving, ordering prints, etc. Since I have a Shutterfly account, I just take any photos that have my son in them and save them into a file I’ve started in my account.  So, like I said, I really thought this assignment would be a breeze!

Now, with that said, I’ve never used Flickr. So I set up a Flickr account, and went into Mary Bennett’s Flickr site and added a comment which was very easy to do. I didn’t like that I had to set up a Yahoo mail account to set up a Flickr account though. I thought that was a little sneaky of Flickr to force me to use a Yahoo email account to sign up. I couldn’t find any way around that, and honestly I think I have enough email accounts as it is. I uploaded a bunch of photos from my computer, which also was easy to do, as well as add tags and captions to them.

As directed, after I created an account on Flickr, I went to Explore and explored the site. I can see that I could spend hours just exploring the various categories there. I liked the Commons category and can see how that can really be useful in education. First of all, these are photos for public use, without any copyright infringements. That’s always a great thing. Second, for research purposes, we may find some primary sources in there for students to use. The World Map is another great resource for education. When students are researching areas of the world, finding real photos of places they are researching would be amazing for them, and knowing that there is a connection there to real people who have taken these photos and posted them would make them meaningful. After spending quite a bit of time in the Explore category, I went into Groups. I started by searching for Librarians. There are 446! My favorite is Librarian Shoes. I guess it is librarians breaking the stereotypes – taking pictures of the shoes they wear to work. I was amazed at how many of the groups were dedicated to “breaking the stereotype.” After doing a few more searches, I noted that although there are many groups, it is nice to be able to see that Flickr tells you how many items are in the various groups. Many of the groups don’t have any items in them, which would be a waste of time to click on them.

The next thing I spent a very great amount of time on was attempting to put a NOTE on to one of my pictures. I really thought I was missing something by not finding the Action button and not being able to add a note. I read through all of the instructions repeatedly, and went into Flickr help, googled for information and read help forums. It turns out from all of my reading that I deduced that you are unable to do this anymore. So after all of that time, I just commented on one of my photos instead. That was a bit frustrating. However, it seems with most websites, they change frequently and when you least expect it … so expect it! J

The next frustrating thing, that again I spent a good chunk of time on, was attempting to upload a picture directly from Flickr to my blog. Unfortunately that was unsuccessful as well. I attempted this following the same steps as the note process, by following all the directions I was given, repeatedly, googling for directions, and reading help forums. All of the help I read was really no help at all. I went through as many different things as I could, trial and error, and nothing seemed to work. In the end I just ended up uploading the photo from my computer.

I have an Instagram account, which I do not use very much. However I know that the middle school media specialist in my district uses Instagram for her media center. She posts events in her media center, updates on what is going on in her school and has students following her. I just noticed that one of our elementary schools’ Art Departments has an Instagram account too. She had parents sign permission slips to have their students’ work posted. No names were posted with their work. I’ve asked permission to follow that Instagram account.

The project this immediately brings to mind is something that would assist teachers and students in preparing for the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment and Readiness for College and Careers – the test students in our school will take this spring that is technology based). One of the skills is responding to an image. Students will be given images and will have to write a written response. This is a visual literacy skill that a photo sharing site is perfect for. Using Flickr or Instagram, I would start simple. I would post a picture on a large screen, then using a site such as Padlet, I would have students write in 160 characters or less answers to the following questions:

·       What do you observe?

·       What does it remind you of?

·       What is the photographer’s (or artist’s if it is a painting) purpose?

·       Why does it matter?

Depending upon the grade level (this project could be done with any students in grades 3-6), I could start with 1-2 questions and work up. Using Padlet, I would only be requiring a small response. I would build on this project by using other methods of responses, and other types of questions. My 3^rd grade teachers are using Edmodo with their classes. They could also use this type of activity with their students on Edmodo.  For the upper grades, I liked another activity I read about – the 5 card Flickr activity where students are each given 5 random photos with the following questions:

·       Write down one word you associate with each image

·       Identify a song that comes to mind for one or more of the images

·       Describe what all of the images have in common

·       Compare your answers with classmates

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127512555@N06/

The Common Core Standard this project would address would be:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.8
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.

The NETS-S Standards these projects would address would be:

Creativity and Innovation

1B: Create original works as a means of personal or group expression

Communication and Collaboration

2A: Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media

Research and Information Fluency

3B: Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media

Critical Thinking, problem solving, and decision making

4D: Use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions

Digital Citizenship

5A: Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology

5B: Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity

Thursday November 6, 2014

Post #2:

I continued my work tonight, and explored social bookmarking. I’ve had some prior experience using online bookmark managers in the past, which I supposed could be loosely termed “social bookmarking” sites. However I never used any of the sites mentioned in this course. I had heard of Delicious before, but never had any reason to try it. I’m glad I did. It is going to take some time to transfer all the many bookmarks from all the many different areas of my life into my Delicious account. I’m a bit “anal” and I think I’d prefer to do it manually so I can customize the tags myself one by one. Plus, this will give me the opportunity to do some weeding.  However, in the long run, I think this tool is going to be so helpful and useful. Unfortunately, I was having an issue with Google Chrome tonight, in that I was unable to install the app and the extension. I’m hoping when I shut down the computer tonight and restart tomorrow, it will work. One of the benefits of Chrome, though, if it doesn’t work from my computer at home, it will more than likely work from another computer!

At work, the way our network is configured, teachers (and students) are unable to save favorites. Anything saved to the hard drive of the computer (including favorites) are wiped out when you log off or shut down. It is very frustrating. Having a site such as Delicious will be very useful for teachers and I’m looking forward to sharing. As the media specialist, I’m the only person who uses my computer, and I have different technology needs, therefore I’ve been assigned a more administrative log in. I am one of the few lucky ones with access to my desktop at work, and am able to save to the hard drive, save favorites, and other more administrative functions on our network.

After exploring Delicious, I went on to learn about the other sites. I went in to explore EduClipper. I’ve been using a site that sounded very close to it, called Symbaloo. Symbaloo is also a social bookmarking site, where you create boards with tiles, and boards can be shared. It, also, is visual and very user friendly for the students in the elementary school to use. After watching a few tutorials on EduClipper, I have to say I still find Symbaloo easier to use. I haven’t quite figured out how to use the clipper tool yet. However, I’m going to keep at it. Primarily, I’m going to keep trying because there is one thing that EduClipper can do that Symbaloo cannot. With EduClipper, you can link to documents. Symbaloo still only allows you to link to websites. So I’ll keep you posted on my EduClipper progress! I’ve turned a few of my teachers on to Symbaloo. Hopefully once I’ve worked out the kinks with EduClipper, I’ll get them on board with that site too!

I did some research into adding a link roll from Delicious onto my blog. Unfortunately that is a function that has been removed from Delicious. However, here is the link to my Delicious site so far: https://delicious.com/ngridley. 

For my elementary school students, examples of how I would use social bookmarking sites include the following:

·       creating lists of sites for classroom or grade level use

·       assisting teachers with the same as above, or assisting them with creating lists of sites for helping students with homework

·       creating a bank of safe sites for students to use when researching for a particular topic

·       for upper grades, using the social bookmarking site to teach website evaluation, and how to store their own bookmarks

Thursday November 6, 2014

Earlier today I explored RSS Feeds.  My inbox(es) are chronically cluttered. I seem to get as much, if not more, junk mail in my multiple email boxes as I do in my multiple mail boxes! So I like the idea of subscribing to RSS feeds. I can choose to read when I have the time, and if I don’t, I can just bypass it, and not feel guilty.

I had hoped to keep everything in Google, and set up a Google Reader feed reader. However when I searched for that, I found that Googled deleted that app. I opted to set up Bloglines instead. I found it extremely easy and user-friendly and was very pleased to see that. I created my account easily, and linked it right away to my Twitter feed. Then I searched right within the Bloglines site for applicable newsfeeds and blogs. I found and added apps for School Library Journal and AASL (The American Association for School Librarians). I also added a few related to childrens’ books and authors that I like in my school library. I added a feed from Scholastic, and found TED Talks. I also found a few great ones dealing with educational technology. One of them is a collection of blogs that all talk about educational technology.

I had been pinning blogs and sites in Pinterest. Now I think I’m going to take the time to go back into Pinterest and find some of the better sites and blogs I’ve pinned and look for RSS feeds. Any of the sites and blogs that have RSS feeds I plan on adding to my Bloglines so I can get updates. I have a number of teachers in my school who are addicted to Pinterest. I also plan on sharing this resource with them. I believe they will really appreciate the ability to get updates from their favorite sites without having to search for them regularly (if the RSS feed option is available) – it will be a huge time saver.

I can see using RSS feeds in the classroom when I am doing a long-term research project on a current event. For instance, in a second grade class a couple of years ago, a teacher was following a black bear named Lily that was pregnant and living in a cave. There was a webcam in her cave and environmental scientists and veterinarians were watching her and waiting for the cubs to be born. The students were studying black bears (which actually is very authentic for us as we have a large population of black bears that live in and around West Milford, NJ), and they were checking the webcam daily. With RSS feeds, we could have been tracking sites dealing with Lily and whenever there was updated information, the teacher would have been alerted. There were days that the class would search fruitlessly for information. Another similar project is the Journey North project, when students track the Monarch Butterfly migration, which takes months. 

6.2: Web 2.0 Technology Blog Assignment

Publish your first post on your blog.

• Summarize your exploration of blogs. 
• Do you feel you will use blogs with your students? If so, how do you plan on using them? If not, why?
• What do you think is the greatest challenge to teachers and districts who want to use blogs with their students?
• Highlight at least one example of how you might use a blog in your classroom and how this lesson/activity will meet one or more of the NETS-S.

Copy and paste the direct link to your Blog here. Make sure your blog is public so that your instructor and classmates may view it. You do not need to allow commenting.

http://gridleyn.blogspot.com/

I’ve read lots of blogs, and have tried to blog in the past. I usually just feel that I don’t have all that much to say! I’m always impressed with all of the fantastic things that are going on in other classrooms and media centers, as described on the blogs of other teachers and media specialists around the country and around the world. When I go to a conference and actually meet a blogger face to face, it is like meeting a celebrity!

At this time, the way I’ve thought to use blogs is by sharing new materials that have arrived in the library, doing “book talks” for new novels and longer books that have arrived to drum up interest in them, and to talk about other events going on in the media center such as author visits, the upcoming Hour of Code that we will be participating in, and things like that. I plan on posting a link to the blog to my media center web site so that it is easily accessible to the students.

My 3^rd grade teachers are using Edmodo this year. One of the three teachers used it last year with a lot of success, so now the whole 3^rd grade team (all three teachers) are using it as part of their ELA program. They have parental permission, and parents have their own log in as well. Students will have assignments and will be blogging both at home and in school. The teacher who used it last year was happy to report that she saw growth in other areas of the curriculum that she didn’t expect to see growth, and I saw a greater increase in technology skills in the students in her class as well.

One of the challenges teachers and districts face is the lack of understanding on the part of the parents. Case in point – in the 3^rd grade teachers’ experience, they held two meetings with parents in the computer lab, hands-on, to show the parents how to log in to the site, and many still had issues (the kids had fewer issues, I’m happy to report). Also, as the homework on Edmodo isn’t “traditional” homework, many parents think it is optional so it doesn’t get done. It is a different way of doing things and some parents are resistant to this change, even though they may say that they agree that we need to embrace the technology and move in that direction. Maybe it is because of the age of their children. I think given time, this won’t be an issue any more. Another challenge will be students who use the technology in an inappropriate way and post things they shouldn’t. With a site such as Edmodo, it is heavily monitored and the teacher has the ability to remove posts. Character Education and Ethics factor into these lessons heavily.

As for using a blog in the library, I do many different research activities with students at all different levels. I could see using a blog to ask students to discuss what they learned by posting the following questions:

What did you learn about …?

Did you learn anything that surprised you?

How do you think learning about this topic will help you?

Comment on at least one other student’s post.

I would also post a rubric in the library about blog posts. This rubric would address what I expect in a blog post and how to attain various grades on their blog posts. For instance, commenting on another student’s post by saying, “I like what you said,” would not give a grade in the highest category. However adding more detail to that sentence by explaining why you liked what that person said would add more weight. This activity would meet the NET-S #2 for Communication and Collaboration: (a.) Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media and (b.) Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats as well as #5 for Digital Citizenship: (a.) Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology, (b.) Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity, and (c.) Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.