Sorry for the delay. Moravian's Internet wasn't working great on Sunday and I had two midterms on Monday.
What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?
In our classroom, we're always looking for ways to keep students engaged. Most of the time, this can include video clips. Where's the best place to find video clips? Yep...YouTube. However, YouTube is blocked by most school district's servers because of all the noneducational and inappropriate content on there. So where can I go to show my students video clips?
That would be SchoolTube!
According to their website, "SchoolTube.com is the nation's largest K-12 moderated video sharing website that provides students and educators with a safe and FREE video sharing website that is exclusively endorsed by leading education associations. "
SchoolTube is free and safe to use in the classroom, some definite affordances.
Some downsides to it though are you cannot access all the videos that are on YouTube still. YouTube is more popular and more videos are posted there than SchoolTube. Yes, it has a lot of inappropriate content, but it also has a lot of educational ones too.
What new skills do we need to teach students?
Something I would have to teach students is how to use SchoolTube. The best ways to search for videos, how to post their own, how to watch videos, etc. I would also need to teach them what kind of videos can be found on SchoolTube. If I want my students to post videos on there, I need to teach them how to make their video.
What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
I don't think that I would have to change much in terms of teaching. I would typically use SchoolTube as an aid. It would not replace my entire lesson. It would just support more understanding for my students.
How does the technology help me to foster creativity, innovation and some of the other 21st century skills?
Students will have the opportunity to create videos to post online to share with millions of people, something that could only be done with 21st century video sharing sites. Students also have the opportunity to create their own videos, which can allow them to get extremely creative and innovative.
What are some ways I can use this technology in my classroom?
I would use this to aid my lessons. Show a video clip here and there. For example, I could show a video with the waves of the ocean and how it relates to a sine and cosine curve, if such a video exists. If not, I can make one! Also, I could use it to demonstrate step by step how to solve certain math problems. Students could do one step at the time before the video and when I continue playing, they can check to make sure they did the right step.
Discussion Question: Do you feel that SchoolTube or YouTube would be more beneficial to use in your classroom (assuming YouTube isn't blocked)?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
2/13/11
Twitter!
What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?
Twitter is a free online service that allows us to communicate with our "followers" as well as those we're "following." It can allow for a large amount of people to communicate with one another as well as stay up to date as to what's going on in people's lives. Naturally, this tool can be used greatly in education mainly in terms of discussions and announcements.
There are some constraints to this technology though. Your updates can only be 140 characters. That means in terms of discussions, you're limited in how much you can say per post. Another constraint is that your updates as well as the updates of those you are following appears on your homepage. If someone you're following is not involved in your discussion, you can get irrelevant things on your homepage. Another constraint is that Twitter is used mainly as a social network rather than an educational resource.
What new skills do we need to teach students?
What new skills do we need to teach students?
First, students need to learn how to set up Twitters. Although that is relatively easy, you then have to follow others. Denise, Britt and I found that part to be quite difficult. New members don't show up in search results right away, so we had to type each other's URLs in rather than just search for them.
One very important skill that students need to learn is how to "tag" someone or a topic. The @ symbol is directed towards a user, while the # symbol is direct towards a group or a topic. It can be confusing as first for students to know when to tag, how to tag and which symbol to use. Also, they need to learn the benefits of tagging others and groups.
Another skill that is very important for students to know, is how to limit their responses to 140 characters. Your posts go in order from the bottom up, but the text in each post goes from the top down. It is difficult then to read 3, 4, 5 posts in a row that make up one response. This could be a great tool then for students to learn how to get to the point and prevent run-on sentences
What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
Using Twitter in my classroom would allow me to have more discussion based assignments. I would have to teach students how to use Twitter and how we're going to use it in the classroom. Teaching and learning will look different, because instead of me facilitating a discussion, Twitter will do it for me. It can be done entirely by students.
How does the technology help me to foster creativity, innovation and some of the other 21st century skills?
This technology allows students to reach out to one another in many ways. Since you're limited to 140 characters, the students will have to come up with some creative ways to get their point across in such short messages. It helps foster 21st century skills because we're always on the go. Many of us don't like to read or listen to lengthy things anymore. The quicker you can get your point across, the better.
What are some ways I can use this technology in my classroom?
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5649046/How-To-Use-Twitter-in-the-Classroom
I found this link while researching about using Twitter in classrooms. It can be a very useful tool in classrooms.
Some uses would be to gather real world data, summarize views as Tweets, class discussion (views), keep parents up to date, polls, communicate with other students or experts and monitor learning progress (instead of exit slips).
I found that this would be great for exit slip type of things and to keep parents up to date in my classroom. Some of the many uses are extremely difficult for math classrooms. It is difficult to present math problems on Twitter, however, it is useful to collect opinions about math in general.
Discussion Question: Would you use Twitter in your classroom?
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
2/8/11
Wikipedia in the Classroom
What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?
Wikipedia can be an excellent resource for classrooms. It is an online encyclopedia that is free to use. The pages are constantly updated with new information. It even provides sources at the bottom of the page to verify if the page is valid.
There are also some drawbacks to Wikipedia, especially in the classroom. First, there is always the chance the Internet will be out just like it was for much of the weekend in my dorm. I was unable to access Wikipedia, and there is always the chance that could happen in a classroom. Hard copy encyclopedias do not require Internet access, but they are also not as regularly updated. One major drawback is that Wikipedia pages can be edited by everyone and do not need to be peer reviewed like journal articles. This could lead to some inaccuracies. However, there is a disclaimer for Wikipedia that states something should be cited to be trusted. Students may become too reliant on Wikipedia and take everything stated on there as truth.
What new skills do we need to teach students?
We will need to teach students how to use Wikipedia as a starting point for research, but not also how to be cautious and determine the accuracy of statements on each page. Students will need to be taught how to use Wikipedia and how to access the sources used to write the articles.
By having the class creating a Wikipedia page or something similar, we will also need to teach students how to edit pages.
What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
The way I would use Wikipedia would be having students create a page about the topic we're studying. I would teach them the basics about the topic so they can work together to create the main summary. Then I would let students work on their own or in groups about specific subtopics to add to the article. Much of teaching will be how to use the technology and determine the accuracy of sources. Learning would be done through outside research.
How does the technology help me to foster creativity, innovation and some of the other 21st century skills?
I like to think of doing a class Wikipedia page about a topic as a modern day collaborative research paper. The entire class works towards one goal of creating a detailed page about a topic and does outside research. However, much of this collaboration would take place online. Eventually everything will be online: books, newspapers, journal articles, so knowing how to edit pages online is a definite 21 century skill the students would obtain from this.
What are some ways I can use this technology in my classroom?
As described before, I would have students create a classroom Wikipedia page about a topic we're studying. They would add to it throughout the unit and would work in groups on different subtopics to add to the page. Ultimately, all students would have to edit and approve editing the page in order to make the information on there as accurate and important as can be.
I would also use Wikipedia to demonstrate how to get started on finding sources for a research paper. I would show how you can find an interesting line on Wikipedia which you can further develop into a well researched topic.
Ultimately, there are many ways to use Wikipedia in the classroom that I may not have covered. There are some definite benefits of using it, but there are also some major drawbacks.
So I'm asking you, do the benefits of using Wikipedia outweigh the risks of it being constantly edited by ordinary people?
What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?
Wikipedia can be an excellent resource for classrooms. It is an online encyclopedia that is free to use. The pages are constantly updated with new information. It even provides sources at the bottom of the page to verify if the page is valid.
There are also some drawbacks to Wikipedia, especially in the classroom. First, there is always the chance the Internet will be out just like it was for much of the weekend in my dorm. I was unable to access Wikipedia, and there is always the chance that could happen in a classroom. Hard copy encyclopedias do not require Internet access, but they are also not as regularly updated. One major drawback is that Wikipedia pages can be edited by everyone and do not need to be peer reviewed like journal articles. This could lead to some inaccuracies. However, there is a disclaimer for Wikipedia that states something should be cited to be trusted. Students may become too reliant on Wikipedia and take everything stated on there as truth.
What new skills do we need to teach students?
We will need to teach students how to use Wikipedia as a starting point for research, but not also how to be cautious and determine the accuracy of statements on each page. Students will need to be taught how to use Wikipedia and how to access the sources used to write the articles.
By having the class creating a Wikipedia page or something similar, we will also need to teach students how to edit pages.
What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
The way I would use Wikipedia would be having students create a page about the topic we're studying. I would teach them the basics about the topic so they can work together to create the main summary. Then I would let students work on their own or in groups about specific subtopics to add to the article. Much of teaching will be how to use the technology and determine the accuracy of sources. Learning would be done through outside research.
How does the technology help me to foster creativity, innovation and some of the other 21st century skills?
I like to think of doing a class Wikipedia page about a topic as a modern day collaborative research paper. The entire class works towards one goal of creating a detailed page about a topic and does outside research. However, much of this collaboration would take place online. Eventually everything will be online: books, newspapers, journal articles, so knowing how to edit pages online is a definite 21 century skill the students would obtain from this.
What are some ways I can use this technology in my classroom?
As described before, I would have students create a classroom Wikipedia page about a topic we're studying. They would add to it throughout the unit and would work in groups on different subtopics to add to the page. Ultimately, all students would have to edit and approve editing the page in order to make the information on there as accurate and important as can be.
I would also use Wikipedia to demonstrate how to get started on finding sources for a research paper. I would show how you can find an interesting line on Wikipedia which you can further develop into a well researched topic.
Ultimately, there are many ways to use Wikipedia in the classroom that I may not have covered. There are some definite benefits of using it, but there are also some major drawbacks.
So I'm asking you, do the benefits of using Wikipedia outweigh the risks of it being constantly edited by ordinary people?
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