Week 4: Google Reader

One of the difficulties with living in a world where there is a plethora of information at your fingertips is there is, in fact, TOO much information.  How do you effectively sort through all of the blogs you follow while still having time to work, sleep and play? RSS seems to be the answer to this dilemma.

RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, has been around since 1997.  However, to me, it is a brand new concept.  It has taken a bit for me to get into, but once I realized it's usefulness, it began saving me a lot of time. I began using a RSS Reader called NetNewsWire.  I liked the fact that it organized my feeds into different folders.  What I didn't like about it was that it was computer dependent and I had to use my laptop to access any of my feeds.
 
This class introduced me to Google Reader.  After playing around with it a bit and discovering how to organize feeds, I found myself REALLY liking this particular RSS Feed. For one, I like the mobile access. Second, I like how it can be displayed in iGoogle and allows you to see new feeds at a glance.  I am excited to find new blogs to follow and use Google Reader!  It seems simple.  Really!

Google Reader

Week 4: Social Bookmarking

 My first introduction to social bookmarking was during a workshop at the Christa McAuliffe Conference this past December.  A librarian was running the workshop and introduced a handful of "new" tools on the Internet.  One of them, Diigo, caught my attention.  The idea of having all of my bookmarks at my disposal, from any computer, anywhere in the world, was quite impressive.  I had spent years building up my bookmarks, mainly for curricular use, to only have my PC (yes I am now a Mac convert) crash and I lost everything. I mean everything, bookmarks included.  This social bookmarking seemed to be a great tool to ever prevent that from happening again.

I immediately signed up for an account and began using Diigo.  My next level of awe was when people started commenting on the bookmarks. Teachers from all over the world (China!) explained how they used the bookmarked tool in their classroom.  Not only was I simply bookmarking sites I found useful, I was getting ideas as well. Who would have known?

The next best part about Diigo is being able to see others bookmarks.  Being able to see what other science teachers in the world find useful saves me time in trying to find sites myself.  I have to be careful though, as often I can get lost in the bookmark world!

The sticky notes and highlighting aspects of Diigo are tools that I have not used yet, but am looking forward to implementing them into my classroom at some point, hopefully this school year.  Students, especially middle schoolers, can often times get lost in reading articles online.  I teach them to mark up their text when reading, and this is a great opportunity for them to do the same thing online.  The other benefit I can see from these tools is focusing my students and posing questions myself.  By highlighting a certain part of an article or leaving a sticky note of thoughts for them to ponder, this can be beneficial to focus and organize their assignments.  Better yet, when having students do an online activity, instead of making a worksheet with directions, you could use Diigo to lead them through the task at hand.

I also have not used the education part of Diigo, where students can get their own sign in and password.  I am interested to see the benefits of this.  I am looking forward to continue to learn about the uses and benefits of Diigo and I hope to somehow incorporate this tool into my classroom this year.

Week 3: A Portal to Media Literacy

Ambitious is the first word that comes to mind when watching Michael Wesch's lecture, A Portal to Media Literacy.  I can only wish that someday I will be able to incorporate his vision and energy into my own classroom.

Wesch stated that there is a "crisis of significance".  Students today are not finding any meaning in  their education.  They only look at it as a grade and do not see how it is relevant to their own lives.  I see this all the time when kids ask questions like, "Will this be graded?"  I think it is important to make it relevant and important, but sometimes I feel like it is easier said than done.

Wesch created significance by helping students make meaningful connections to their education.  His simulation game was quite simply amazing, to say the least.  To get kids involved at that level and create such an intertwining activity for students to connect must have been arduous.  As I watched it I immediately began to think, how do I begin to change my ways in the classroom to make it more meaningful for students?

Wesch said to begin you need to provide students with the big picture.  Students need to see how everything connects, not only concept to concept, but concept to learner.  Okay.  Let's see.  Life science... cells, atoms, chemical reactions, genetics, body systems... how do they all connect? They are all levels of organization to help living things do what they need to do so they can live, grow and reproduce. That seems too simplistic. Is that what he is talking about? Now I need to make it relevant to students.  Any ideas?

The next step Wesch said is to provide students with a platform for participation and allow them to realize how tools can help them collaborate, create, analyze, etc.  Why does it sound so easy but when you stop and think about it within your own classroom it seems a bit more complicated?  How do you effectively let students explore, create, collaborate? How do you maintain structure and function in a middle school classroom while allowing students the freedom to explore? Sometimes I feel like this is a fine balance and I don't think I do the best at this balancing act.  Michael Wesch certainly got my gears turning, and once it sinks in and settles I hope I have a better vision for the overarching theme to my own classroom.

Week 3: Shifting Ground

The article, Shifting Ground, by Chris Lehmann brought up many interesting points that I question in my own mind.  One question that is at the center of this article is how do schools adapt, change, evolve, to keep up with society? That, I guess, is the million-dollar question.

There are many different aspects to the education system as a whole. The government, the state, the town, the budget, the principal, the school board, the superintendent, the teachers, the students.... where do you begin? It gets overwhelming very quickly.

Let's just look at the teacher aspect.  To begin, colleges need to change how they are teaching soon-to-be educators. New teachers can begin the process of this evolution.  If they are taught to teach differently then they will themselves, teach differently.  What about veteran teachers? How do you get them on board?  Hmmm.... lots of different things to think about!

If teachers are the key to this process, it is imperative that they are trained properly and given much support to help with the evolution of education. With all of the new technology, kids are on their own to learn "how to use these tools intelligently, ethically, and well (Lehmann 1)."  Most of their elders, parents, teachers, etc. are not as well adept at using the tools than their children or students.  The one big issue I find as an educator is that children do not have the training on know how to use technology properly.  They do not realize the ramifications of putting information on the Internet.  They do not know how to properly share information.  Who is supposed to teach them how to do this? If it is our responsibility as educators then schools need to train their teachers properly.  Teachers need to feel comfortable with the technology themselves before they can help others feel comfortable with it.

In the end, teachers are the ones having direct contact with students on a daily basis.  They will be the ones to ultimately help shift the education system with the shift in society. The big question is, where do we begin?

Another one of those videos to get you thinking about the shifting ground...

Week 2: Chapter 1

What should we be teaching students in today’s classrooms? This is a question I often find myself thinking about as the pressure mounts to increase NECAP scores, meet AYP and make sure all the curriculum content is covered (along with teaching kids reading, writing and technology in the content area).  What really matters? In the end, what do we, as educators, owe our students to make them capable, functioning citizens of society?

In Chapter 1 of Web 2.0 new tools, new schools, Solomon and Schrum stated,

"…how we educate our children may prove to be more important than how much we educate them"(p. 11).

I am in complete agreement with this statement.  Students need to learn how to research, synthesize, analyze, communicate and collaborate, just to name a few.  The content should just be a means through which these skills are acquired.  The frustrating thing is that we are often times pressured to focus on content for testing rather than important skills.  It is our duty as educators to prepare our students for the new world.   Technology is not only part of that new world but it is also a great tool to help students master the necessary skills. Society is changing and education needs to follow suit.
 

Below is a video I found that was created by Tom Woodward of Henrico County schools in Virginia. Interesting thoughts...

Week 2: Thoughts on Course

After attending the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference this past December, my interest and intrigue in learning about the different technology tools increased dramatically.  Even though I would call myself somewhat “technologically literate”, I have by no means kept up with the changing times and the new emerging Web 2.0 tools.  I couldn’t believe how much was out there.  I got excited about what all of the new information would mean for my classroom, but I didn’t know where to begin.  With so much information and different tools available, I soon found myself lost in the land of Web 2.0 insanity. I had to stop, take a step back and begin to think about what my objective was for a particular lesson and from there, decide what was the best avenue for helping students achieve that objective.  Once I focused my ideas, it became a bit easier to find the right tool for the job. 

I decided to start with blogging.  One of my educational objectives was to increase student writing in my classroom.  I thought a blog would be a good avenue for this task and easy for me to measure student progress.  Having said that, do you know how many blogging tools are out there? Yikes! I found myself setting up account after account with every blogging site I could find only to find that they didn’t quite do what I wanted to. Finally, I settled on ClassChatterLive and am now in the process of looking into 21Classes.  See… it never ends!

So what is my point with all of this?  I am in desperate need of guidance and direction to some of the different tools and their applicability to the classroom.  I am hoping this class will provide that structure and guidance for me.  So wish me luck and let’s have some fun!