A. How will you use these technology applications to improve learning experiences for your students and/or improve your own practice?
After completing all 21 Things within this class, I am excited about the possibility of sharing/developing awareness about many of these applications with my fellow staff members. I've been thinking of how I might be able to maybe do a session on some of these "Things" during one of our teacher in service days next year, D.V. Furthermore, I am thinking about developing my computer class in such a way that my students would also become familiar with several of these available resources.
The technology applications within Things 15-21 provided with me several additional ways to incorporate technology within my instruction. Thing #17 on research and reference materials along with Thing #20 on graphic organizers are especially helpful for having my students perform research. The graphic organizers such as Bubbl.us should help them with organizing their thoughts while the MeL databases provide an abundance of material for their research. I have not done a lot of research with my students throughout the past years, but these new technology applications have sparked my interest in developing this area of my teaching. I would like to not only teach my students about the availability of these tools, but also get them familiar with using them even if it is just at an introductory level.
Google Calendar, Virtual Classroom, and the Screen-casting "Things" were helpful in giving me more ideas in how to improve educating and communicating with my students while they are outside of my classroom. I am still a little uncertain if I should go over to using a CMS or just use a website to put my things on-line. Either way, or perhaps through a combination of both, I am excited about the increased tools that I have learned about through this class for providing the opportunity to publish more of my teaching materials on-line.
B. What effective teaching and learning strategy(ies), based on the work by Marzano (http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/VSTE/2008/ ) will these technology applications address, to make a difference in the learning experience for your students?
The Marzano teaching and learning strategies that will be addressed by Things 15-21 include the following:
1. Identifying Similarities and Differences - Students will have the opportunity to recognize the similarities and differences between various tools if they are given the opportunity to try two different pieces of software that are designed to produce similar results. For example, in Thing #20 students could be taught to use both Bubble.us and Webspiration and then they would be able to note the similarities but also the differences between the software. This could also be done with Wordle and Tagxedo.
2. Summarizing and Note Taking - The summarizing and note taking strategy is addressed through the use of research and reference tools. While students are performing research, they have to summarize the content of articles and often will take notes on the material. Visual learning tools such as Bubbl.us and Gliffy are also helpful for summarizing.
4. Increasing Value in Homework and Practice - The research and reference materials are helpful tools to assist students in their work. These reference materials should be a help for increasing the quality of their work.
5. Using Non-Linguistic Representations - Thing #20 on Visual Learning addresses the use of non-linguistic representations. The Visual Learning tools provide opportunities for students to organize thoughts, words, and ideas in a way that will benefit visual learners.
6. Incorporating Cooperative Learning Effectively - Marzano's strategy on cooperative learning is addressed through the use of professional learning networks and through staying informed by using Google Reader and iGoogle. Students could also work cooperatively through Moodle or another Course Management System.
9. Utilizing Questions, Ques, and Advanced Organizers - This effective learning strategy of Marzano could be addressed through visual learning tools such as Gliffy or Wordle.
C. Choose one of the seven things and describe an activity or lesson you could use in your classroom. Include in the description how the lesson meets either a Michigan curriculum standard or another Educational Technology standard.
Students could make a PowerPoint presentation on a certain topic such as the history of one of Kings of Israel or Judah. Then, while each student is presenting their topic to the rest of the class, I could have their presentation recorded through the use of Jing or Screencast-o-matic. This would allow them to them to afterwards listen and critique their own presentation and it would allow the opportunity for them to publish their presentation as a screen cast on their own Weebly website.
One of the NET-S technology standards that the above project would meet is 2.b regarding Communication and Collaboration. The standard states that students are to "communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats." Through presenting their PowerPoint and making it available on-line to friends and family, students will have the privilege of communicating information to multiple audiences and through using a variety of technology tools.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Thing #21 - Screen-casting
Jing Screen Cast
Screen casts are very enjoyable to make and are useful tools to publish to your "face of the classroom" website. Below is a Jing screen cast that I made on how to use Microsoft Excel 2007 to make a chart.
This screen recording is also published on my Weebly website at: http://gvbzone.weebly.com/computers.html
Today I showed the screen cast on Excel 2007 to my 6th grade students and they seemed to enjoy it. They gave me a few recommendations including that I should avoid mumbling and try to minimize extra noises such as the processor fan. Perhaps I will need to get an external microphone to use for my recordings.
I am very excited about making additional screen cast tutorials to add to my website. Not only are the fun to make, but they also could be very helpful to my students. The screen cast above took about about 5 minutes to record. Perhaps there is a lot of benefit to keeping screen casts short, but it would be nice at times to also make longer screen casts. Therefore I am interested in experimenting with Screencast-o-Matic to see if I like it as much as Jing. One of the areas in which I would like to develop screen recordings is with some of my PowerPoint presentations. I could also make additional tutorials for my students on how to use a variety of the tools and features of various programs and websites.
Screen casts are very enjoyable to make and are useful tools to publish to your "face of the classroom" website. Below is a Jing screen cast that I made on how to use Microsoft Excel 2007 to make a chart.
This screen recording is also published on my Weebly website at: http://gvbzone.weebly.com/computers.html
Today I showed the screen cast on Excel 2007 to my 6th grade students and they seemed to enjoy it. They gave me a few recommendations including that I should avoid mumbling and try to minimize extra noises such as the processor fan. Perhaps I will need to get an external microphone to use for my recordings.
I am very excited about making additional screen cast tutorials to add to my website. Not only are the fun to make, but they also could be very helpful to my students. The screen cast above took about about 5 minutes to record. Perhaps there is a lot of benefit to keeping screen casts short, but it would be nice at times to also make longer screen casts. Therefore I am interested in experimenting with Screencast-o-Matic to see if I like it as much as Jing. One of the areas in which I would like to develop screen recordings is with some of my PowerPoint presentations. I could also make additional tutorials for my students on how to use a variety of the tools and features of various programs and websites.
Content Standards:
Aligned to NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b,1.c, 1.d, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 2.d 3.a, 3.c, 4.b
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Objectives and Feedback; Homework and Practice; Nonlinguistic Representations
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Objectives and Feedback; Homework and Practice; Nonlinguistic Representations
Thing #20 - Visual Learning
Bubbl.us is a useful web-based tool that allows students to easily brainstorm, connect ideas, and organize their thoughts. This tool will be helpful as a planning tool before students begin writing papers, construct posters, prepare speeches, design presentations, or work on any other project that requires an organized plan to be successful.
Wordle is a useful tool for quickly putting together a word cloud of important words from an article, paragraph, book, or lesson. This is an excellent resource for teachers and students to highlight, learn, or review vocabulary. This tool is so easy to use and allows for tremendous variety in the appearance of your word cloud. Below is word cloud that was made using the words from this paragraph.
Content Standards:
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Questions, Cues and Advance Organizers; Non-Linguistic Representations
Thing #19 - Virtual Classroom
1. Extending my Classroom
There is a lot of value in teachers putting their courses on-line. This gives students the beneficial experience of what it is like to actively use technology as a tool for educating themselves. Furthermore, it provides students with a valuable resource for further inquiry, to review past material, and for staying informed when they are absent from class. Finally, this will provide another way in which students will be able meet NETS-S standards of using technology effectively and productively.
The way that I have begun to put some of my course content online is by setting up a website in which students can download notes, view assignment details, or download handouts or presentations. There are several ways, however, that I could better improve in putting my courses on-line.
The first is to reorganize my materials and set them up in a web environment that is better organized and user friendly. I like the way our 21 Things class is organized using Moodle and am thinking about switching over or also using Moodle for putting course content online for my students. Furthermore, I could start video taping my lectures and/or make screen recordings of presentations. For example, I'm interested in making video recordings of the teaching component for each of my my middle school math lessons. Even though absent students would not necessarily have the benefit of guided practice or of asking questions as they would by being present in the classroom, yet they would still be able to watch the lesson explanation and consequently stay caught up on the course content. Through these videos students would also have the benefit of being able to re-listen to the explanations from home while completing homework or preparing for tests and exams.
2. Navigating the Land of Online Learning
After navigating through the "board game" as a student, I came across several requirements that need to be considered in order to ensure successful participation for students in an online learning environment. Teaches need to understand and be aware of these things as they consider requiring students to be a part of an online learning environment.
In the first place, a successful online student should be informed of the value of this method for instruction as it meets technology standards, provides them with schedule flexibility, offers them a variety of course options, and develops in them real-world skills. Secondly, the successful student needs to have options for connecting to the learning environment from home and school. Among these options need to be considered whether students can use either platform, use their own laptops at school, and have access to tech support. Maintaining connectivity is essential for an online course to be a reality. Furthermore, the successful student will need guidance in making choices regarding course selection. This is guidance should provide the student with an understanding of how the course is conducted, what it costs, its requirements, and the expectations that it places on the student. Students need to be mentored before and during the course in order to avoid frustration, incompletion, or an unpleasant learning experience for the student.
Content Standards:
Aligned to the NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b, 1.c, 1.d, 3.b, 4.a, 4.b, 4.c
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Cooperative Learning; Questions, Cues & Advance Organizers
There is a lot of value in teachers putting their courses on-line. This gives students the beneficial experience of what it is like to actively use technology as a tool for educating themselves. Furthermore, it provides students with a valuable resource for further inquiry, to review past material, and for staying informed when they are absent from class. Finally, this will provide another way in which students will be able meet NETS-S standards of using technology effectively and productively.
The way that I have begun to put some of my course content online is by setting up a website in which students can download notes, view assignment details, or download handouts or presentations. There are several ways, however, that I could better improve in putting my courses on-line.
The first is to reorganize my materials and set them up in a web environment that is better organized and user friendly. I like the way our 21 Things class is organized using Moodle and am thinking about switching over or also using Moodle for putting course content online for my students. Furthermore, I could start video taping my lectures and/or make screen recordings of presentations. For example, I'm interested in making video recordings of the teaching component for each of my my middle school math lessons. Even though absent students would not necessarily have the benefit of guided practice or of asking questions as they would by being present in the classroom, yet they would still be able to watch the lesson explanation and consequently stay caught up on the course content. Through these videos students would also have the benefit of being able to re-listen to the explanations from home while completing homework or preparing for tests and exams.
2. Navigating the Land of Online Learning
After navigating through the "board game" as a student, I came across several requirements that need to be considered in order to ensure successful participation for students in an online learning environment. Teaches need to understand and be aware of these things as they consider requiring students to be a part of an online learning environment.
In the first place, a successful online student should be informed of the value of this method for instruction as it meets technology standards, provides them with schedule flexibility, offers them a variety of course options, and develops in them real-world skills. Secondly, the successful student needs to have options for connecting to the learning environment from home and school. Among these options need to be considered whether students can use either platform, use their own laptops at school, and have access to tech support. Maintaining connectivity is essential for an online course to be a reality. Furthermore, the successful student will need guidance in making choices regarding course selection. This is guidance should provide the student with an understanding of how the course is conducted, what it costs, its requirements, and the expectations that it places on the student. Students need to be mentored before and during the course in order to avoid frustration, incompletion, or an unpleasant learning experience for the student.
Content Standards:
Aligned to the NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b, 1.c, 1.d, 3.b, 4.a, 4.b, 4.c
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Cooperative Learning; Questions, Cues & Advance Organizers
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Thing #18 - Staying Informed
Google Reader
Although I have used Google as a search engine for as a long as I can remember using the Internet, there are so many tools offered by Google that I am just beginning to learn about. Today I set up Google Reader and subscribed to the RSS feeds from three different websites. This is a very new way for me to gather information, but it seems to save a lot of time. Instead of going to websites for news or blog updates, the news and updates will simply be sent to my account as new updates are posted. Through making use Google Reader, I should become better informed on the current events and topics of discussion that are relevant to my personal interests and my calling as a teacher. Below is a screen shot of my new Google Reader account.
Content Standards:
Aligned to NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b, 1.d, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 3.a, 3.b, 3.c, 3.d, 4.b,
4.d, 5.a, 5.c, 5.d
Although I have used Google as a search engine for as a long as I can remember using the Internet, there are so many tools offered by Google that I am just beginning to learn about. Today I set up Google Reader and subscribed to the RSS feeds from three different websites. This is a very new way for me to gather information, but it seems to save a lot of time. Instead of going to websites for news or blog updates, the news and updates will simply be sent to my account as new updates are posted. Through making use Google Reader, I should become better informed on the current events and topics of discussion that are relevant to my personal interests and my calling as a teacher. Below is a screen shot of my new Google Reader account.
iGoogle
I decided to use iGoogle for my RSS aggregator. After setting up Google Reader as described above, I set up my personalized iGoogle page and included Google Reader as one of my gadgets. This iGoogle page is very useful for the purpose of a personalized homepage. Through using iGoogle, you can gather a lot of information all from one location. For example, from one location you can check your email, browse the news headlines, view updates to blogs to which you have subscribed in your Google Reader, and much more. This an excellent tool for people who are busy and do not have time to browse through blogs and news sites to see if their are new things that they should know about. Now the news and blog updates can come to you as soon as they are posted and all at one convenient location.
Content Standards:
Aligned to NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b, 1.d, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 3.a, 3.b, 3.c, 3.d, 4.b,
4.d, 5.a, 5.c, 5.d
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Thing #17 - Research and Reference Tools
1. Student Research
Wow! The Junior edition and the Student edition of Infotrac are excellent databases for scholarly articles for students to use for research. They are similar in layout and are easily searchable. The main difference between them is that the junior edition contains a reduced number of books (only 330) in comparison to the 1100 titles available in the student edition. The junior edition is geared towards middle school and junior high students while the student edition is for high school students. The student edition appears to contain all of the same articles as the junior edition but then also a whole lot more. Since the two editions are so closely related, there should be no trouble for students to make the transition from using the junior edition in middle school to using the student edition in high school.
Infotrac provides students with safe, relevant, and scholarly articles. Since the majority of the articles on Infotrac come from professional journals and other published resources the majority of the information is would be considered useful for citation within a research paper. Furthermore, since the students are searching within a controlled environment while using Infotrac there is little danger of them coming across inappropriate content. Furthermore, while conducting their searches, the majority of the information that they will come across will be useful and helpful to their research. Consequently it will not be necessary for them to filter through a lot of information that is irrelevant as they would with doing an ordinary Google search on their topic of interest.
2. Advanced Research
I decided to conduct a few searches using Academic OneFile by Infotrac. The results were helpful and I was very impressed with the tremendous amount of information that is available through this database. Since the articles and resources that are available through Academic OneFile come from peer-reviewed, professional journals, most of the content is reliable and credible. Although the content is written at college level, it is useful to educators for their own professional development and research.
3. Work Cited - 1
The ability to make citations directly through MeL is something that was completely new to me. I wonder if this tool was around when I was in college, since it would have saved a lot of time and effort in writing my works cited pages. The fact that MeL generates citations for you is another great reason for using MeL databases for research rather than just browsing the Internet. The citation tool is so easy to use that students should have very little difficulty to put together a well developed list of sources for their research. Below is a screen shot of a citation that I generated through using the citation tool within MeL.
The citation below was generated through the citation tool available within MeL:
Perkins, Sid. "Volcanic hot spots: molten messengers from deep within the earth." Science News 9 July 2005: 24+. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 May 2011.
Document URL:
4. Work Cited - 2
Making a bibliography is so simple with using a tool like BibMe. I wonder why I was not told about tools like this when I was in college. Perhaps these tools were not around or perhaps the professors wanted to keep us ignorant so that we would get experienced at formatting a citation. At any rate, I am glad to now know about this helpful tool.
The citation below took seconds to make using using BibMe:
Paton, John Gibson. Thirty years with South Sea cannibals; autobiography of John G. Paton.. Rev. ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1964. Print.
Content Standards:
Aligned to NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 3.a, 3.d, 4.b, 5.c
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Summarizing and Note-taking; Similarities and Differences; Homework and Practice; Generating and Testing Hypothesis
Thing #16 - Professional Learning Networks
Michigan LearnPort
The LearnPort website is a great place to go to find professional development courses or resources. After creating an account, you are able to search for available courses that may interest you. Many of the courses are online and some are even free. It appears that most courses provide educators the opportunity to earn SB-CEU credit hours in order to meet continuing education/professional development requirements. I am thankful to have been introduced to LearnPort and look forward to visiting again.
Facebook
Today I signed up for a new Facebook account. Facebook is an interesting tool for connecting with friends and family but also may be useful to educators. It provides an easy way to communicate and share information and keep up to date on what is happening in other people's lives. Children under thirteen, however, are not permitted to use Facebook and not without good reason because they may lack discernment regarding how much information or what information they should or shouldn't publish online. Perhaps the greatest benefit of Facebook for teachers is that it provides an opportunity for teachers to be available or be a mentor for their students while out side of the classroom.
MACUL Space
After creating an account with I joined a group named SIGEE. There was no cost associated with joining this group although it costs $5 to go to the annual SIGEE meeting. The description of SIGEE is quoted below:
"SIGEE is a network of educators who have a strong interest in utilizing technology with K-6 students. SIGEE strives to provide elementary educators with the tools necessary to successfully integrate technology into the K-6 curriculum."
The benefits of being a part of SIGEE are that I can add comments to discussions, find answers to questions, and learn from other educators about ways to integrate technology into the elementary classroom. Through what I have learned from taking this class on the 21 Things, I am hopeful that I may have some helpful suggestions or answers to educators on how they could better incorporate technology into their classrooms.
Content Standards:
The LearnPort website is a great place to go to find professional development courses or resources. After creating an account, you are able to search for available courses that may interest you. Many of the courses are online and some are even free. It appears that most courses provide educators the opportunity to earn SB-CEU credit hours in order to meet continuing education/professional development requirements. I am thankful to have been introduced to LearnPort and look forward to visiting again.
Today I signed up for a new Facebook account. Facebook is an interesting tool for connecting with friends and family but also may be useful to educators. It provides an easy way to communicate and share information and keep up to date on what is happening in other people's lives. Children under thirteen, however, are not permitted to use Facebook and not without good reason because they may lack discernment regarding how much information or what information they should or shouldn't publish online. Perhaps the greatest benefit of Facebook for teachers is that it provides an opportunity for teachers to be available or be a mentor for their students while out side of the classroom.
MACUL Space
After creating an account with I joined a group named SIGEE. There was no cost associated with joining this group although it costs $5 to go to the annual SIGEE meeting. The description of SIGEE is quoted below:
"SIGEE is a network of educators who have a strong interest in utilizing technology with K-6 students. SIGEE strives to provide elementary educators with the tools necessary to successfully integrate technology into the K-6 curriculum."
The benefits of being a part of SIGEE are that I can add comments to discussions, find answers to questions, and learn from other educators about ways to integrate technology into the elementary classroom. Through what I have learned from taking this class on the 21 Things, I am hopeful that I may have some helpful suggestions or answers to educators on how they could better incorporate technology into their classrooms.
Content Standards:
Aligned to the NETS-T:1.a, 1.b, 1.c, 1.d, 3.a, 3.b, 3.c, 4.a, 4.c, 4.d, 5.a, 5.d
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Cooperative Learning; Objectives and Feedback; Reinforce Effort and Provide Recognition
Connections to Marzano Strategies: Cooperative Learning; Objectives and Feedback; Reinforce Effort and Provide Recognition
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