Welcome to Sketchfu

           

            In this article, we learn about a Web 2.0 tool that is called Sketchfu. It is a helpful tool for the classroom that allows a teacher to draw or write something, and then watch the process of how it was done. The teacher that uses this great tool says that some people might not understand the value in this, but that it definitely serves a purpose. The tool can be used for showing processes such as: math problem solving, a scientific process, laying out events in history and more! When teachers have a Sketchfu account, students are also able email and comment on each others drawings. All teachers have to do is create a free account to get started. The author does state that there are some drawbacks such as privacy issues and advertisements however the author believes that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

              I think that this would be very helpful and also fun for my future students. I really like the idea of being able to play back steps for students over and over for them to see. If I were teaching younger children I could see myself using this for simple math and perhaps letting the students draw pictures that correspond to our lessons. With older students such as sixth grade, I could use it for math as well and also for enhancing my history or language arts lessons. I would feel concerned about the privacy issue with the tool. I would hope that this would be addressed by the time I become a teacher.

              This article represents ISTE standards for students number one, which states that students “develop innovative products and processes using technology”. The students demonstrate this by drawing pictures with the tool. Standard number two is met, which states that students “use digital media to communicate and work collaboratively”. The students show this by being able to comment on each others drawings and email each other. Standard number four is met, which states that students “solve problems using appropriate digital tools and resources”. The students do this by watching the playback of the steps of the drawing to learn about the topic.

Fabricant, Autumn. (2010). Sketchfu in the classroom. Learning & Leading with Technology. 5(37), 31.

Wikipedia for History Projects?

                       

                       The article titled “What? Wikipedia in History Class?” is about how a high school history teacher uses the website Wikipedia to use as a digital tool for high school students to do a history project. This teacher has his students pick a topic in history that interests them and then they must do research on their chosen topic. The students then submit a five hundred word article complete with references to publish on Wikipedia. The students then have to monitor their article on the website by watching to see if any users contribute to their article or to see if it gets flagged for deletion by Wikipedia administrators. The students must work to prevent their article from getting deleted, and regardless of the outcome, submit a five hundred word reflection. The teacher uses this assignment to help his students by doing research, developing a new view of Wikipedia, and learning the difference between fact-only writing and analytical writing.

                        As a future educator I feel that this is a great way for students to not only get more comfortable with navigating the internet, but also with making sure that their online mannerisms are polished up. I also feel that it is a great way to make a research project even more exciting. This project is even more unique because of the fact that students need to follow up with the project even after it is published on the website. I think that this is a great way to hold students accountable and to teach them more things about the internet. I would love to use this idea to give my students experience writing articles for the internet for various reports and for learning proper digital citizenship.

                        The article relates to a few of the ISTE standards for students. It relates to standard one, which requires students to “develop innovative products and processes using technology”. The students met this requirement by creating their own articles on the website. Standard number five was also met which states that students “practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology”. The students demonstrated this by practicing proper online etiquette with the article they published and their correlation with the website administrators. The article also meets standard number six, which states that students “demonstrate a understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. The students demonstrated this by the use of the internet for the project itself.

Boggs, Jeremy. (2010/2011). What? Wikipedia in history class?. Learning & Leading with Technology, 4(38), 32-33.

My Personal Learning Network

                       In creating my own personal learning network, I used a few different tools to expand my knowledge in education. I used the site called feedly.com to subscribe to a few educational RSS feeds for me to follow. I subscribed to Education, Education & Learning News, and Education News on feedly.com. I found the feeds to be very interesting and informational on different issues that pertain to education. I learned about some things that I never heard of, before creating my Feedly profile. One such story was about teachers being “cyber” bullied by parents and students. I also enjoyed that you can learn about things that other teachers are doing in the country, such as a story that I read about teacher’s blogging in small cities to get more exposure.

                        I also used a site called Twitter where I followed a few people involved in education. The pages that I followed were Lee Kolbert, Pam Moran, and Kathy Cassidy. I chose to follow each of these because they are each from different aspects of education and I believed that they could give me different insights on things that are going on. When I explored Kathy Cassidy’s page, I learned about how a first grade teacher can use Twitter to tweet with one of her own students while she is away from the classroom for speaking purposes. I also learned about different things that the teacher was involved in such as her interest in teaching at international schools. In Pam Moran’s page I learned about how involved principals can be with students even though they are not the teacher. She also gave great ideas about maintaining focus with lighting and different desk options. On Lee Kolbert’s page I read an interesting article about how to help students retain memory when studying. I looked up the hashtag titled “edtech”, and it led me to find an article about how to use word clouds with students and how they are beneficial in teaching. I tweeted in one discussion on Pam Moran’s page about a student project about chicken eggs being hatched. I tweeted “Is that for a class project?? Very Cute!” and the person that posted the project replied back to me “a research project group”. It was a friendly and curious discussion.

                        I explored a ning group titled “The Educators PLN”. The site was filled with resources about education and had many other members involved with education. There were many ways which you could communicate ideas and ask questions of other members through tools on the site like the chat room and the blogs. There were interesting forums and videos to watch where other members posted about education and related topics. I read a discussion on the forums titled “Emotional Behavioral Disorders”, which was very interesting to read about special education issues in this particular teacher’s classroom. The teacher is asking for advice on dealing with the disorder and another teacher responds to her posting by saying how important it is to show the student that you care about them. I felt that the teacher got the support and advice that she was looking for in this example in a very positive way. From this experience, I learned that teachers can truly collaborate and support each other from afar and provide very good visual representations of what they would like to show each other.

                        I feel that my overall experience with my PLN was very intriguing. I had no idea that there were so many options on the internet as far as teacher collaborative support. I find it very reassuring and also exciting to have these advanced tools available to me as I enter the teaching profession. I think that a PLN has many benefits to offer an educator, such as being able to share ideas and seek advice. There is so much room within these networks to be able to collaborate with educational peers and mentors. The only potential flaws that I could see with the use of PLN would be less privacy for the teacher on the internet and that some collaboration might not be as effective as if it were being done in person. However I feel that my PLN will help me a great deal as a teacher. One day I may come across an issue where I would like to seek some support but I would rather not ask someone at my school site, and that is when my PLN will help me out. It also will provide me with the ease of using the internet for many things like my questions and looking for ideas for my classroom. My PLN will also keep me up to date on news and matters that pertain to education, in a very quick and efficient way. It will also be a positive way for me to share my own ideas for the classroom with other teachers. I cannot think of any reason why my PLN would not help me in the future!

Facebook for Research Projects!

            The article titled “What if Abraham Lincoln Had a Facebook Page?” discusses the use of Facebook as a learning device. The author describes how current ways of assigning students research projects and reports is very uninteresting to students. The idea of integrating Facebook as a supplement to a research project is then introduced as a means of digital storytelling. Some of the examples that were given was to make a page about Abraham Lincoln, and then another about the relationship between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union during the cold war. The article explains how integrating this social tool can keep the interests of the students and be a powerful means of storytelling.

            As a future teacher I think that the idea of using Facebook as a means of digital storytelling will be very powerful in my classroom. I think that because my students will be very familiar with Facebook, it will be very exciting for them and something that they will feel comfortable doing. The fact that my students will be so experienced with this type of site also makes me wonder if they will become very creative and come up with their own ideas? I would personally like to use this idea if I did research projects with my students on different countries of the world. I think this will be a fun and unique way for students to come up with different ways to use Facebook and enjoy this type of project I plan to do.

            This article represents ISTE standards for student’s number one, which is creativity and innovation. The students are required to “develop innovative products and processes using technology”, which is done by the students creating a Facebook page on the internet.  Another standard that is met is number two, and this is on communication and collaboration. The standard states that “students use digital media to communicate”, which is met by the students using the Facebook page to tell a digital story. Standard number five is also met, and is about digital citizenship. This states that students “practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.” Since they are creating a page that will be on the internet for others to see, they have to practice being responsible with what they create.

Glover, Bryant. (2013). What if Abraham Lincoln had a facebook page?. Learning & Leading with Technology, 8(40), 38-39.

Meeting Diverse Student Needs

            In the video titled “UDL at a Glance”, it discusses how teachers all have diverse groups of students with different learning needs with Universal . It then goes on to explain how teachers can meet the needs of all of their students. The phrase “universal design for learning” is then explained and how it helps diverse learners. The video then gave three different steps for teachers on how to demonstrate universal design for learning in the classroom. Then in the article titled “Build an Assistive Technology Toolkit”, explains assistive technology in the classroom and how to get it started. There are different free assistive technology tools that are mentioned such as “Bookshare”. Some tips are then given on working with your IT department to get the assistive technology.

            I think that a universal design for learning is important for any classroom, and I plan to implement those tips into my own classroom. When I have my own classroom I will be facing the issue of having a variety of different student learning needs. I will implement the steps given by creating a variety of teaching models, giving my students opportunities to express themselves, and providing my students with different choices of learning activities in my classroom. I think that integrating assistive technology into the classroom is also very important and I can use it in my own classroom for my students with special needs and their varied learning styles. One example would be that if I had a student that had vision problems, I could use Google Books to find books for the visually impaired. I will work with my IT department by consulting with them and understanding IT terminology.

            In the “Build an Assistive Technology Toolkit” article, I did not find anything that met any of the ISTE standards for students. For the “UDL at a Glance” video, I also did not find any evidence of any of the ISTE standards for students being met.

Gravel, Jenna. David Rose (producer). (2011). UDL at a glance [internet]. Available from http://www.udlcenter.org

Ahrens, Kelly. (2011). Build an assistive technology toolkit. Learning & Leading with Technology, 3(39), 22-24.

Student Created Websites

                        The article titled “Students Strike Gold with Bowling Alley Webpage”, describes how high school students create a website for a local bowling alley. A high school business teacher for a web design class puts her students in pairs to design a website for a local bowling alley. Each pair then comes up with a website design to present and hopefully get chosen to be used for the bowling alley.

                        As an elementary school teacher, I think I could use a web design project like this with upper elementary aged school students. I would conduct the lesson as a classroom project that is done with me under my supervision at all times. This would be a nice way to introduce students to web design for future classes and other aspects of technology. As a class I would allow students to contribute ideas together as we created a website and I taught the class different aspects of creating a website. I would also create small groups to be assigned small tasks such as coming up with ideas for wording or graphic design.

                        The article fits under many of the ISTE standards for students. It clearly fits under standard number one, which states students “generate new ideas, products, or processes”. The students in the article each generated their own ideas for the website project. The article also fits standard number two which states students “interact, collaborate, and publish with peers”. The students in the article worked in pairs with each other to construct and come up with ideas. Standard number three is also represented by this article which states students “gather, evaluate, and use information”. The students were close to the bowling alley to be able to gather data needed for the website and any photos. Standard number four is met which states that students “use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions”. The students had a rubric with guidelines to follow and also encountered problems such as meeting the customer needs.  The article fits standard number five which states students “practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology”. The project also included the students discussing matters such as social, ethical, and legal issues. They also practiced writing proper citation pages and writing their own text and taking their own pictures. Standard number six was also met which states students “understand and use technology systems”. Students demonstrated their understanding of technology through manual coding, Adobe Photoshop, and maintaining a blog.

Candela, Tasha. (2012). Students strike gold with bowling alley webpage. Learning & Leading with Technology, 5(39), 40-42.

Virtual Field Trips

    

                        The article titled “Yes, You Can Take a Field Trip to India!” shows how using technology, a classroom can now take field trips to places all around the world. The article talks about how one teacher uses blogs and pictures on a trip to India, to keep in touch with a third grade classroom while on the trip. The teacher also brought back souvenirs, answered classroom questions through email, and attempted to skype. The classroom is able to experience a virtual field trip by the information provided through the traveling teacher. After the trip, the teacher went to visit the classroom and discuss the field trip further in person. The article explained how through all the different activities, the students were able to experience a virtual field trip to India.

                        I feel that this is a great way for students to take “field trips” and to learn about the world in general. When I become an elementary school teacher I would love to do this with my own class. Children would find this very fun and exciting I am sure. I think it would be an added benefit if my students kept a journal along with reading the blogs. As an added bonus I think it would be good for my students to blog back and forth with the traveler in addition to emailing. Another idea I had was for students to make videos with questions and requests for the traveler. I think it is also a great way for my students to also learn more about the use of technology with education.

                        This is an example of ISTE standards for students number two. Standard number two is about communication and collaboration and requires students to “use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance”. The students clearly learn information across many countries in this example with the teacher in the story. Standard two also requires students to “develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures”, which is also shown in this article. The students learn about another culture by taking a virtual field trip by blogging with the traveling teacher.

Casolaro, Nancy. (2013). Yes, you can take a field trip to India!. Learning & Leading with Technology, 1(41), 30-32.