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!