This has been a seemingly long and frustrating journey at times, but overall is definitely worth it. I considered myself pretty tech-savvy, but this project has taught me that I still have plenty of things to learn. This was a good wake up call for me- technology is growing and changing all the time, and as a life-long learner, I need to be open to the changes and embrace them.
One of my new favorite discoveries is the Animoto site. As soon as I started working with it, my mind was going a million miles an hour with ideas for its use in my classroom. It is so simple and fun. Another of my favorite tools is LiveBinder. I did get frustrated with this one, but now that I can use it properly, I am a big fan. For some things, like putting all of my ideas for a class project in one place, LiveBinder is a much better option than Pinterest, GoogleDocs, etc.
The fact that I found these two programs so applicable to my future career was slightly surprising. I really wasn't sure what to expect from this program, but I can say my knowledge has expanded and I am grateful to take that away from this project. I plan to take many of these tools with me to my classroom, especially my favorites, LiveBinder and Animoto. I think this course has reminded to keep an open mind to using more technology in teaching. Further, I plan to keep up with all the new technology coming out for use in education by following the education blogs, education technology blogs, and simply searching for education 2.0 in news articles. I really liked the RSS feed for this purpose- I can just log on and see what's new in all the education blogs, sites, and forums.
The program was pretty easy to follow. The only issue I had was trying to find others' blogs to follow. The instructions state that they show in the sidebar, but I didn't realize that it takes a while for them to show up after we register. I was worried I had done something wrong and my blog wasn't connecting to those of my classmates.
I do plan to re-purpose my blog. I really like the idea of a classroom blog. I haven't decided what I want to do exactly, but I have some ideas. I may use it to continue to document all of my work throughout grad school, like a personal portfolio that I can access easily. I've also thought about turning it into a source of information for parents of my students. I'll just write a short blog every day or every week about how the class is doing, what we are studying, and giving some tips and reminders. Finally, I could use it as my personal account of my journey to becoming a teacher. Clearly, I have many different directions in mind as to where to go next, but I think any one that I choose will be very helpful to Mrs. K the teacher one day!
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Thing 23: Creative Commons
The APSU 23 things blog was created under a creative commons license. This is evident by simply exploring the websites it is based off of:
Learning 2.0- 23 things
K-12 Learning 2.0
Understanding Creative Commons licensing is a very special tool for educators. We can "borrow" ideas from others, but we don't have to re-create it exactly like the original. We can still add some of our own creativity, as long as we follow the rules of the CC license. This is much more ideal compared to how you would normally reference someone else's work, since sometimes the original doesn't exactly fit our needs as teachers. Just like in this project, the APSU site keeps the same "backbone" but is very different, so that it fits APSU's students' needs more appropriately.
Learning 2.0- 23 things
K-12 Learning 2.0
Understanding Creative Commons licensing is a very special tool for educators. We can "borrow" ideas from others, but we don't have to re-create it exactly like the original. We can still add some of our own creativity, as long as we follow the rules of the CC license. This is much more ideal compared to how you would normally reference someone else's work, since sometimes the original doesn't exactly fit our needs as teachers. Just like in this project, the APSU site keeps the same "backbone" but is very different, so that it fits APSU's students' needs more appropriately.
Thing Twenty-Two: LiveBinder
I created three different binders today: Classroom Management, Second Grade Science, and Color Schemes. I chose these three because I think they will all be useful in the future. Well, Color Schemes is just for fun- I think decorating my classroom will probably be one of my favorite parts of a new school year!
My Classroom Management binder will probably be the most useful, and one that I can see myself expanding on: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1017911
At first, Live Binders was somewhat overwhelming to me. It seemed like limitless information and I felt the need to rush to organize everything immediately. I do realize that is ridiculous, but I can thank my type A personality for crazy things like that. However, after I tried it out with my Second Grade Science binder, I became more comfortable with how the program works. I think making plenty of different tabs, or even many different binders would be the key. Starting with a really broad topic for a binder is what makes it overwhelming. However, just focusing on color schemes or just focusing on organization ideas for one binder would be very helpful. Now that I am comfortable with the program, I am very happy with it, and would definitely consider using it in the future. Although I am still a loyal pinner (on Pinterest), I like LiveBinder for teaching purposes as I can combine things from Pinterest and many other sources in one location.
I think the binders I have already created are great examples for use in the classroom. However, this could be used for a large number of other things:
I could make a binder of short stories, with tabs on topics. Then, students could choose a story to read from the binder.
I could place math activities in a binder, with tabs on different lessons, so students could choose which activity they want to do or game they want to play that day.
I could expand on other areas of science, placing experiments in the tabs for students to look through and help decide which experiment they want to do in class.
Clearly, there are plenty of ways to use LiveBinder in the classroom, and I may have a new addiction!
My Classroom Management binder will probably be the most useful, and one that I can see myself expanding on: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1017911
At first, Live Binders was somewhat overwhelming to me. It seemed like limitless information and I felt the need to rush to organize everything immediately. I do realize that is ridiculous, but I can thank my type A personality for crazy things like that. However, after I tried it out with my Second Grade Science binder, I became more comfortable with how the program works. I think making plenty of different tabs, or even many different binders would be the key. Starting with a really broad topic for a binder is what makes it overwhelming. However, just focusing on color schemes or just focusing on organization ideas for one binder would be very helpful. Now that I am comfortable with the program, I am very happy with it, and would definitely consider using it in the future. Although I am still a loyal pinner (on Pinterest), I like LiveBinder for teaching purposes as I can combine things from Pinterest and many other sources in one location.
I think the binders I have already created are great examples for use in the classroom. However, this could be used for a large number of other things:
I could make a binder of short stories, with tabs on topics. Then, students could choose a story to read from the binder.
I could place math activities in a binder, with tabs on different lessons, so students could choose which activity they want to do or game they want to play that day.
I could expand on other areas of science, placing experiments in the tabs for students to look through and help decide which experiment they want to do in class.
Clearly, there are plenty of ways to use LiveBinder in the classroom, and I may have a new addiction!
Thing 21: Animoto
I created a video that I could use as an introduction to my class, called "About Mrs. K". It's just a short get-to-know-your-teacher film:
Intro Video
I am so happy I have discovered Animoto. It walks you through the process step-by-step, so is very easy to use. I pulled pictures from Facebook and Instagram because I had more personal pictures about my life saved on those accounts, but I could also use many other sites, or just upload from my computer. Even rearranging the pictures into the order I wanted was so simple. I can't think of a complaint with this program at all!
This project was just one of my many ideas for use of Animoto in the classroom. Really the possibilities are endless! I could also use it to make slide shows with pictures much faster than in Microsoft Powerpoint, which could be applied to just about every subject. I could use it as a creative writing prompt, as a visual aid while telling stories, to help visual learners understand concepts better, and so much more!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Thing Twenty: You Tube
I am a big Youtube fan. I found the above video very easily, and started following the channel I pulled it from. I chose this video because it could be used as a fun introduction to the solar system at an early elementary level. I really like that Youtube also gives plenty of suggestions for other videos to watch in the sidebar.
I could also use EpixHD in my classroom to show them clips of movies relating to the current subject area. Most of the time, I will probably use Youtube, but occasionally, I could find an appropriate movie for my class.
Thing Nineteen: More Social Networks
Educators can best use social networking to connect to others in the field to share ideas. This can be done through Facebook pages, blogs, Pinterest, and many others. I am now a member of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and I have a blog. I do not want to join any more networks at this time, considering I clearly am involved in plenty already. However, I do like IMDB to look up information from movies and television. I also really liked many of the cooking sites I learned about in this assignment, and would be open to using them in the future.
Thing Eighteen: Social Networks
I already have a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/callieedavis but I don't use it very often. Even those most reluctant to joining social networking will eventually have to admit that it is useful, and probably one of the most powerful tools we have available to us today. Educators need to understand that ours students are immersed in a culture full of social media, and all the negative hype it brings doesn't always tell the whole story. Further, we can be very effective educators by using these tools appropriately.
I can't say I really gained any new insights into twitter. I am comfortable using it, as I have had an account for over a year. What I liked about hashtag searching on twitter is that it brings up more relevant information to me, and surprisingly was more appropriate than Delicious. Delicious brought up all kinds of things that I have no interest in and would never use. Twitter may not bring up everything that is necessarily classroom worthy, but it at least fits my search criteria. For example, when I typed in "second grade" Delicious brought up a few relevant things, but had some sites with the tags "sexy" and various other ridiculous things. Twitter brought up plenty of pictures of cute second graders and tweets about first days of school, but it also helped me find some education tweets to read and follow.
I think social media can absolutely be used in the classroom. I had a professor that created a twitter for our class and used it to tweet us homework tips, interesting articles relevant to our studies, and reminders for class. It is a great way to keep in touch with students, parents, and other teachers, as long as it is used in the right way.
I can't say I really gained any new insights into twitter. I am comfortable using it, as I have had an account for over a year. What I liked about hashtag searching on twitter is that it brings up more relevant information to me, and surprisingly was more appropriate than Delicious. Delicious brought up all kinds of things that I have no interest in and would never use. Twitter may not bring up everything that is necessarily classroom worthy, but it at least fits my search criteria. For example, when I typed in "second grade" Delicious brought up a few relevant things, but had some sites with the tags "sexy" and various other ridiculous things. Twitter brought up plenty of pictures of cute second graders and tweets about first days of school, but it also helped me find some education tweets to read and follow.
I think social media can absolutely be used in the classroom. I had a professor that created a twitter for our class and used it to tweet us homework tips, interesting articles relevant to our studies, and reminders for class. It is a great way to keep in touch with students, parents, and other teachers, as long as it is used in the right way.
Thing Seventeen: Delicious
Although I think tagging is a great idea and can be extremely useful, I can't say Delicious is one of my favorite ways to do so. Delicious brought up an extremely wide range of results, which to me is inefficient. I would much rather just Google exactly what I want. I would not use it in my classroom, or personally, but I think for some it could be useful. It is another way to get more ideas about a subject, or find more sites on a subject. It is unique in that your bookmarks can be accessed anywhere, and for some teachers, this might be helpful. For example, teachers that do not regularly use powerpoint presentations could use Delicious to quickly pull up a web page they want to show students. My preference would be to just link the site I want to use in my lesson to my powerpoint presentation or whatever program or tool I will be using already.
Thing Sixteen: Being Productive
I used UStart to create my homepage. Mainly, I liked that it still looks similar to other pages I have had, like Yahoo or AOL, but it is customizable. Maybe I'm a little too easily distracted, but I don't think I need my laptop looking like my iPhone (which Symabloo would certainly do), or my productivity will decrease instead of increase. However, I probably won't make it my homepage for a similar reason- I would rather read the news and gossip online than start my homework. I think plain old Google is the best choice for me.
I really like online calendars because I have access to my schedule just about anywhere. I still can't survive without my planner, but an online calendar allows me to have a back-up plan just in case I do forget my planner one day.
I am already a huge fan of Mint.com. I really can't think of a more useful tool that does, in fact, increase your productivity and save you time. It puts all of your financial accounts on one page for you. You can make budgets, start savings goals, and pay bills all in one place. I would 100% recommend this to everyone! My finance professor recommended it to us during an undergraduate class, and I only agreed to try it because he assured us he used it personally, and could vouch for the safety of the site. Now, I am so glad I gave it a try.
I really like online calendars because I have access to my schedule just about anywhere. I still can't survive without my planner, but an online calendar allows me to have a back-up plan just in case I do forget my planner one day.
I am already a huge fan of Mint.com. I really can't think of a more useful tool that does, in fact, increase your productivity and save you time. It puts all of your financial accounts on one page for you. You can make budgets, start savings goals, and pay bills all in one place. I would 100% recommend this to everyone! My finance professor recommended it to us during an undergraduate class, and I only agreed to try it because he assured us he used it personally, and could vouch for the safety of the site. Now, I am so glad I gave it a try.
Thing Fifteen: Wiki
I never knew there were so many wikis out there! I thought the Book Lover's Wiki, which was designed for everyone involved in a summer reading program, was a great idea! I also really liked the educational blogging wiki. As far as adding to the APSU 23 things wiki, it was slightly confusing. Since I have never been on a site like that before, it took me a few tries to figure out how to sign up, gain access to the page, and then post on it. However, now that I know how it works, I think it could be a very useful tool. I would like to have access to something similar to the educational blogging wiki, but maybe for local teachers only. I like the idea of sharing ideas in this way and how easy it is to add to what someone else has said.
The thing that is so interesting about wikis is that they seem so open to what anyone has to say. There are protective measures in place, but it still seems strange to me. Perhaps the idea will grow on me, but for now, I would rather just keep my own thoughts and words my own without someone else editing them.
The thing that is so interesting about wikis is that they seem so open to what anyone has to say. There are protective measures in place, but it still seems strange to me. Perhaps the idea will grow on me, but for now, I would rather just keep my own thoughts and words my own without someone else editing them.
Thing Fourteen: Mind Maps and Flow Charts
I chose to explore bubbl.us and mindmeister because they seemed the easiest to navigate. Mind meister even lets you try it without signing up, which I found really appealing. They are both simple to use- basically you just start typing your first idea, and the program tells you exactly which keys to press to create the next bubble/ box you need to keep forming your image. This could be a useful tool for me to quickly show students how to use brainstorming tools so that they can use them personally. I could also use them for class discussions, to give them a visual representation of the content we are going over. For example, if we are discussing learning tools, I could make a mind map showing all of the ideas my students and I come up with during class.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Thing Twelve: The Many Uses of Google
As previously stated, I am a big Google fan. It is so simple and gives such a large variety of results. Today, I began explore Google Calendar and Google Alerts. I absolutely love these two tools. Google calendar allows me to schedule my day down to 15 minute intervals, and the most unique aspect is that I can sync it to my cell phone calendar. I would probably use this one as my personal calendar, since I have a Microsoft Outlook calendar for my work schedule that I share with everyone else. This one, I could use for all of the personal reminders/ appointments that I need to keep track of. Google Alerts is a really unique tool. It sends you alerts when there is new news on a subject that you have chosen. I chose not to create an account, because I really don't need any other applications notifying me with things that will distract me from being productive. However, it would be very convenient to have news stories delivered immediately if I do want to keep track of a current event. It could be used as a tool when I become a teacher, allowing me to keep track of new laws in education or other current events to discuss with my students.
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