The course content was very well developed and Jerrie has been an excellent facilitator! I heard and even talked about a lot of these tools, but was finally “forced” to use them for myself. I thought the exercises were effective ways to “test the water” as they each made us reflect on how they could be used for teaching and learning.
I also learned a lot about myself as an online learner and about online courses in general. This was tough! I’ve always struggled with participants ”proving” they completed content in an effective manner. I think this course demonstrated to me how that can be documented in a measureable way. I also appreciate the collaborative nature of my co-learners.
Being the Digital Immigrant that I am, I have not really explored the world of social networking. I know I should since the Digital Natives are so tied and bound to this avenue of communication and sharing. I talk all the time about trying to tie education into the tools and avenues that our students are interested in. Shame on me for not jumping in there. Thanks to this class, I got my big toe wet as I explored Classroom 2.0 and Ning. I found some interesting posts – some positive and some negative. I was also pointed to a good article “Can new Media Be Taught in Schools?”.
Problems are associated with these social networking sites, but the sites themselves are not the problems. It is how we choose to use them. It reemphasized to me the need we have as educators not only to investigate and integrate these new tools into our classrooms, but the vital need to educate our students on information literacy. Online safety, relevancy and validity of information and copyright laws are only a few of the areas that we need to incorporate into our daily instruction in the classroom.
I admit this class has forced me to take advantage of a great Web 2.0 tool, the Google Reader. I have set this up and thought I would use it, but found myself always putting it off until I had time! When will that day come? Anyway, I have been glad to be “forced” to making this something of a habit, because I always find something interesting to ponder.
Today I read from Bernajean Porter’s blog. She speaks about how fast our world moves these days and how we can let the chaos “take us” or how we can actually make a decision to MAKE DECISIONS about what we should work to complete and incorporate in our lives – just like my Google Reader!
Bernajean writes, “As I work with colleagues on their school grants, projects and staff development events being seeded to make changes, I hear lots of whining along with anger, defensiveness, and some hopelessness as people understandably negotiate getting out from under the pressure of their present realities and the increasing expectations to change learning and classroom life. Some make the changes needed when they see the light (self-perturbation) while others wait until the lighting strikes before they get IT. “
The pressure to change our learning environments will continue and escalate until the shift is made somewhere in time. We can let it “take us” where it will or we can work together and make decsions about how we want to get where we are “going”.
this is a great way to organize a lot of “stuff”. Being able to have your To Do list, calculator, dictionary, google serach bar, etc. might save a lot of time instead of going from site to site. I like the way you can customize to the information that you want to see or use most often. I immediately thought of adding my RSS feeds and email here so it can be your “one stop shop”. Of course, I got caught up in a lot of stuff that seemed really cool that I might never use, but that is part of the fun of window shopping.
A teacher might use Pageflakes for students to collect important feeds about particular topics they are studying. Being able to incorporate the RSS feeds and even Delicious bookmarks would be a great resource for students as they conduct research.
Google Docs is a fabulous collaborative tool. You would have access to your files at any computer with access to the Internet and you can share those documents with the world or with a few. Our school district struggles with 1) ways to allow students to collaborate when they don’t have the same software, 2) finding safe ways for students to transfer files from home to school and 3) storage space for saving these files to District servers. These applications seem to be able to satisfy these needs.
I am sure if you have access to the “full blown” products, it might be hard to give up all the bells and whistles. It does provide the import and export features that would allow you to work on content through the collaborative stage and then import to upgrade the presentation mode. Most of us, especially students, spend more time with the design and glitz of a presentation and the content suffers. There is something to be said for focusing on content first.
It seems like this is a great way for strapped school districts to save time and money and get people working in a collaborative mode.
What a fabulous tool – the tubes. Everything you want to see and some you don’t want to see are out there to view. I am so thankful that there is the “safe” Teacher Tube version so we can take advantage of this medium in our classrooms. I found a fabuous video from the World Economic Forum. I know, that sounds like something very boring, but it is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic orchestra and he is talking about seeing possiblities in others and bringing out the best in others. It is very motivational and I think speaks to the change in pedagogy that Learning 2.0 addresses for 21st century teachers. He talks about being the leader of many people playing different instruments and different parts and yet he never makes a sound. It is all about bringing out the best in others and letting their voices be heard. Enjoy the link below! OK…I wokred and and worked with this and finally got it embedded, BUT I also have 2 Google ads at the top. I am not sure how I got those but I guess they are a bonus you can enjoy as well!
Podcasts are a great tool for teaching and learning. I like to download podcasts to my IPod and listen when I walk or am in the car. It is like being able to dial up the exact thing you want to hear discussed on the radio when you want to hear it. However, you can start and stop, rewind and fast forward to suit your learning and listening style.
I have seen a lot of enthusiasm for podcasting with students in our district. We have heard some great book reports, field trip notes, and performances by our students. Administrators and teachers have used podcasts to convey information, announcements and celebrate successes with their parents, faculty and student body. One teacher, merry Willis, has posted vodcasts on Itunes of students teaching students to work fifth grade math problems. The students and parents have reported using these examples when doing homework and studying for tests. The class heard from one parent who was home schooling her child overseas. She was grateful the students had provided this learning tool for he child. You should visit The Wacky, Wonderful World of Math. It is exactly the type of Learning 2.0 project Alan November described that should be taking place in our classrooms.
Library Thing was completely new to me. I love the simple idea that I can keep a record of the books I read. Sometimes I forget which ones I have read. I can also find reviews of new books written by others that have similar taste in reading to mine. I can also have discussions with others that are reading the same book. This site can become a “book club” for me since I don’t seem to be able to find the time to attend a real one. Technology, once again, provides an “anytime, anywhere” solution and I can stay in my pajamas!!!!!
We have certainly come a long way with saving “bookmarks”. I remember the days when we wanted teachers to be able to access Internet sites from multiple computers so we gave everyone a 3 1/2 floppy disk with shortcuts to Internet sites! It worked but them we discovered Internet sites that would allow bookmarking to follow teachers everywhere they had access to the Internet.
Delicious is like these sites but on steriods! It is great to be able to save, but also to tag for referencing later. Being able to share and borrow bookmarks with others is the really delicious part. I can see this being a great tool for teachers and students as they work collaboratively on projects. I love being able to join the network of others I admire and follow their bookmarks. How cool!
