Wiki

Having the chance to explore Wiki  this week was very useful.  A Wiki is a page used to collaborate with other members.  Your personal Wiki can be view by everyone on the web or only by the people you choose to invite.  It is cool because you have control over whom you want to let in, help edit and fix up things.  Instead of communicating over a different technology that is time consuming, using a Wiki can cut down the direct contact you need to make with people.  At your leisure, it is easy to log in and edit the Wiki page whenever you have time.  Wiki's also have a very personal aspect where you have complete control over who sees your page.  Having a privacy option is always an advantage.

I find Wiki a lot more useful then Weebly because you are able to create things easily with other people.  In Weebly, there is no way for someone else to edit your webpage without giving that person your personal password. 

Although with blogs it is easy to make comments, there is no way to log on and edit someone else’s blog.  With Wiki you can have a finished product without having to see all the comments that went in to it.  It is a clear-cut way to have communication.

This would be very useful in the classroom because it can be used by students for working on group projects.  You can break students up in to groups and have them create a Wiki page for each group.  The teacher can monitor the group’s member’s progress to make sure everyone is evenly contributing to the assignment.  Wiki’s are very easy to use.  I think students as young as fifth graders would be able to use this successfully.   I would definitely consider using this in my future classroom.

I couldn't decide which Wiki format to use so I made two different accounts.  After experimenting further with both, I found that Wikispaces was an easier Wiki to navigate.  Though the two are very similar, I felt like it was easier to add things such as pictures, links, and videos with Wikispaces.

Check out my Wiki

iclicker

So far the iclicker craze is mainly used at the collegiate level.  Though, since there has been such a positive response in colleges, high school and even middle school teachers have started to use this new tool.  The iclicker is composed of 5 multiple choice letters and it has a handy light that flashes green when a question is registered as answered in a class, and a red button if the answer you choose on your clicker had not been registered.  The clickers are used in class for attendance and to answer questions mini multiple choice questions electronically. 

This is my first year using iclicker in a lecture but I have found it very reliable so far.  It was extremely easy to register my clicker online and all I have to do is give my instructor my ID number and he/she can provide all of my attendance and quiz questions that have been registered during the semester. 

As a future educator I would definitely look into using this tool in my classroom.  It is very easy to keep track of attendance, and also it would be useful to have a technology to use in class that would allow me to ask students little questions throughout my lesson to make sure they comprehend the material we are covering.  After the students answer, the iclicker system also allows the instructor to see who choose which answer, and it gives percentages of who chose each answer.  Another plus to this technology is that it eliminates wasting paper on little mini quizzes.

Though iclickers have many positives, a negative to this product is that it does cost about $35.  Asking students at the middle school level or even high school level for a technology that costs that much would not go over well with parents.  Also, I plan to teach at the elementary level so as much as I would love to use this because it is easy enough for younger kids to use, it is asking a lot of parents to pay for something like this when it is not guaranteed that it will be used more than one year.

Journals

One thing I want to always incorporate in my classroom are daily journals.  I want my students to have a notebook dedicated to their own free writing.  I think it is so important to encourage them to make up their own stories and have a place to privately reflect.  This is a good thing to have to work on if they finish up a test or an assignment early.  Of course their journal would never be graded or even read unless they give me or a fellow classmate permission.

When I was doing my placement last year while I was still going to school down in Georgia, one of the girls in my class wrote a new story every day.  Her stories were hilarious.  I would have never even known this girl was capable of making up such colorful stories if I had not asked what she was working on one day.  She was a very quiet and reserved child, but once she left her imagination run wild, she created some of the silliest stories.  It was great to see all of the creativity the kids possessed as individuals. I always want my future students to have a journal so they have the freedom to write or draw whatever they want.

Second Life

For my choice this week I decided to check out the website called Second Life.  I have never even heard of this site before so I really didn't know what to expect.  I did some research and found out that this is basically a virtual reality space, like the computer game the sims.  You get to pick out your own identity, create your own living space and interact with other people on the web.  This site allows you to be whomever you want to be.

Now educational wise, this does not seem like a site to have in schools.  Besides being able to communicate with others I don't really foresee and positive educational sources coming out of this.  Also, you never really know if who you are talking to is who they say they are.  Everyone has a virtual character to represent them and no one would know if you were lying about who you are, so no one can ever really know if the people they are meeting are who they say they are.

Perhaps this could be a website encouraged for those who are shy.  Many adolescence go through periods of self-consciousness, and many others even face socialization anxiety.  This interactive site could help some who faces those hurdles.  Other then that I wouldn't advertise something like this in the classroom, especially at the elementary level where I plan to teach.

http://secondlife.com/

Good Outdoors Enhancing Learning Abilities?

I recently read an article on how studies show getting kids outside helps improve test scores. I think getting kids to learn outside the classroom is great.  It is hard being stuck in the same classroom all year round.  I always loved going outside for a lesson on a random fall or spring day just to do something different.  I think incorporating classroom activities outside the room is wonderful and every teacher should try to do a few lessons outside every year.  The outdoors is good for everyone.  Classrooms tend to get stuffy and uncomfortable, and being able to go outside with the fresh air and ample space just makes everyone feel better.  Not to mention, when I was in elementary school and got to go outside for a lesson, my friends and I always thought of it as a treat because it was something different.  If studies do show improvement in the learning department from being outside more, if the message is out in the public, maybe we can get more schools to allow their teachers to teach outside more often.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/where-nature-meets-the-classroom/article1797092/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29

Tumble Reader

When I went in for my service learning at Pinecrest Elementary today, the students were planned to watch a book they read in class.  The teacher brought up the mini movie on the projector that displayed her computer monitor.  She was using a website called tumble book reader.  I decided to investigate this website a little further and I found it is a very useful website for the middle and elementary level.  The website has many books that can either be shown or which provide strictly audio.  I think this is great to have in the classroom because it makes reading more fun.  After students finishing reading a book they now have the option of watching what they read as a movie.  This also helps them get multiple ways to comprehend what they read in class.

http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/customer_login.asp?accessdenied=%2Flibrary%2Fasp%2Fhome%5Ftumblebooks%2Easp

Google Docs

Google Docs is an excellent online tool to be able to collaborate work with others.  Emails are a thing of the past with this new technology.  All of the editing and communication process can be dealt with online and with personal privacy settings.  This technology allows people to share ideas and presentations with others by simply sharing their link with others to gain feedback and help edit the different documents.  This is definitely something that could be useful in schools.  Teachers could use this to help students out with their writing.  They are able to view students’ work and add comments in where ever they please with the students permission.  This is also an awesome place for group work because students can all be working on the same assignment from separate computers just by communicating online in their particular online workspace document.

The only downside of this technology is that it can only be used in upper grade levels.  The elementary level is not quite advanced enough to be able to use this technology in class but it can definitely be used in middle school and in high school.

Even though this would be too difficult for elementary students, this is a very useful tool for teachers and administrators to use.  Many teachers create lesson plans together for specific grade level subjects.  Instead of having weekly meetings to discuss new material, they can have constant communication through Google Docs.  This would also help keep things more productive between teachers. Teachers would only be using this tool to collaborate on educational related topics, so it would eliminate any non-school related topics that can be distracting at important meetings.  Overall this seems like a great program to incorporate in all schools.

At the elementary level, I would use this mostly with my student’s parents.  I would be able to send weekly updates in the classroom and parents would be able to leave comments freely about what is going on that week and if they have any questions.  I would also use this to keep track of parent participation.  Parent’s help in the classroom is definitely needed at times with big projects or classroom parties.  This would be a good way to stay organized with plans for activities and other things of that nature.  Google Calendar is also a useful part of Google Docs.  I plan to use this and send the link to my calendar to all of my student’s parents so they know exactly what is going on for the year.  This gives parents a chance plan ahead when students have doctors appointments and other things that would cause them to miss school. Also, in case of illness, students would be able to see exactly what we did each day on Google Calendar by having their parents check my calendar online.

Overcrowding in the Classroom

I recently read an article on overcrowding in the classroom and how it is progressively becoming more of an issue in today's schools.  It is kind of a scary thought to think that by the time I have my own class, the enrollment per room will be over 30 kids.  That is a lot of growing minds to entertain.  In the article, they talked about how higher classroom numbers causes lower performance levels out of the individuals.  It makes sense because the more kids for one teacher the less one on one time is available for the kids.  This is a big issue and teachers are going to have to get more creative with ways to make sure students don't get distracted by the large number of classmates.  One way to ensure classroom focus stays on track is to make sure all the students desks are facing forward.  I think mobility of the teacher also plays a big role.  Teachers who move around the classroom during a lesson are going to be more entertaining then those who stand and lecture in the same place the whole time.  Teachers that are constantly moving will also have a better chance of catching students who aren't paying attention.   I think group work is also a good way to promote positive interaction.  Within group work, if every member is assigned a certain job it also helps to keep the work productive. We can complain all we want about the growing number of students teachers have to take on but I think this is just a perfect opportunity for a challenge.  Teachers will simply have to get more creative.

http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/la-fights-to-overcome-overcrowded-schools-2742339.html

Halloween in School

Last week I was lucky enough to be volunteering in my Early Childhood classroom while they students were celebrating Halloween.  It was so much fun to see everyone all dressed up.  You could tell it was a very important day for them because they would be showing off their costumes to other classrooms.  And of course the amount of junk food all the kids got to eat was unbelievable!  I almost felt bad for the parents because the kids had their halloween party which consisted of eating a bunch of candy and then they walked around the school trick or treating to different classrooms and then they went home.  I'm sure they were bouncing off the walls by the time their parents got to see them at the end of the day.  I thought it was a great idea that they were able to trick or treat to different classrooms.  They were able to show off the hard work they put into their costumes and it was nice that they got to walk around and leave their normal classroom environment for a while.  The school was very organized about doing the trick or treating.  Throughout the week every classroom was assigned a particular day, time, and designated classrooms to visit.  I could tell the kids really enjoyed it and I was glad I got to be apart of it.

Podcasting

I decided to do some research on podcasts since they are becoming more prevalent in today’s society.  This new technology allows anyone with access to the Internet to watch shows online whenever they wish to watch them.  A podcast is a show that is saved on in the Internet and most of the time it is free.  Podcasts can be directly accessed through your phone, ipod, or computer.  The shows have an unlimited range.  They are anything from shows on TV to people’s own creations.  That’s another useful thing about this tool, you can create your own podcasts for free!  I think this would be a useful tool in the classroom because there are many educational podcasts that can be shown to students to change up a lecture format.  Sometimes having a visual helps students better understand new material.  Also with the option of creating your own podcast, you can plan ahead when a sub has to fill in and create your own lesson on a podcast for the sub, so he or she can play the show and the students will still have their same teacher voicing the lesson even though he or she can’t be there. 

This is a great tool for teachers, however this wouldn’t be appropriate for elementary students to access on their own.  Though it is easy to use and search podcasts with the online tutorials, this technology is too advanced for the elementary level.  However, if they are exposed to these things early on, when they make it to higher grade levels like upper middle and high school, they will certainly be able to experiment with creating their own podcasts for projects.  I think this tool can become the new PowerPoint with all the different options we have for creating our own shows and presentations.

http://www.commoncraft.com/podcasting

http://vodpod.com/watch/3764545-session-building-an-online-community-for-kids-itwixie