While playing around with the web applications, I made a Wordle image from Alice’s link.
It’s a lot of fun. Enjoy!
Quick Wordle Link
Aug 4th, 2008 by mrlesh
My Mindset and Concerns for Shifting
Aug 3rd, 2008 by mrlesh
I’ve always had the desire to incorporate technology into my classroom. I’ve tried to think about how I can use technology to add to my students’ experience in school. However, after reading about and discussing 21st century classrooms, I realize that I’ve been looking at technology as a supplement to the curriculum instead of what it should be, an infusion of technology. Seeing how blogs can be used for students to practice literacy and increase their communication and collaboration with one another has shown me that it can work as a central piece to literacy in the classroom. Similarly, wikis allow students to organize the information presented in class and can be used collaboratively to do group projects in all subject areas. I saw these tools as something to add to the class experience, when, in fact, they have the potential to be a central driving force in pushing one’s curriculum forward. They don’t just give students the chance to work with technology in a new and fun way; these tools allow students to express thoughts and ideas that would otherwise go unheard within the walls of the traditional classroom. They allow students to work collaboratively in a way that gives everyone the opportunity to contribute. Originally, I had looked to these tools as a means toward speeding up the process of completing projects (an example of mindset 1) and a way to expand upon teaching to multiple intelligences, but I had never sat down long enough to consider all the benefits and progressive possibilities of these resources.
In the future with my teaching, I will not look so much at technology as a way to add to lessons and instruction, like tying it to the side of what’s already there. I will find ways to infuse it into the lesson to be learned, changing the way in which students actually think and go about solving problems in a collaborative setting.
A specific question I have for myself is how I will go about introducing these ideas to my school. I work within a very good, close-knit team of three other 3rd grade teachers, and we all work together collaboratively almost every morning and afternoon to ensure our success as a third grade team. I would consider myself to be the most technologically outgoing as far as my knowledge of it, which might make it hard to spread these ideas to my team if they have not worked with these tools themselves. Do I launch this initiative for technology in the 21st century classroom as a trial run in my school? I am sure that if it would be successful and looked well upon by both students and parents that my team and administration would push to initiate it in their classrooms as well, but with that push comes a great deal of responsibility on my shoulders. This is probably more of a concern than a question, but it is something I will need to consider more in the future if I am to successfully initiate a push toward 21st century teaching practices in my classroom.
Wikis and Social Bookmarking
Jul 29th, 2008 by mrlesh
After gaining some additional experience with wikis and social bookmarking today, I can see how both would be useful in the classroom, but for different purposes.
WIkis offer a wide variety of possiblities, ranging from teacher websites to class projects. I think using a wiki to model the writing process would make excellent use of the ability for several people to edit a wiki as well as the history pages. Students would be able to collaborate to help write a narrative in preparation for their required narratives in third grade. Then, they would be able to go to the history section of the wiki’s project and see the ideas their peers came up with to improve their writing. The class could then compare the differences between revising big ideas and editing grammar and conventions in those history updates. This would help them to see the differences between those two processes as well as see what is expected of them in order to successfully write a narrative. A project like this one is something which I would be very excited to do with my students, and I might extend this idea to a class poem which could be revised and edited to help show how one can make a simple statement alliterative or into a simile.
While wikis would be a tool to use with my students, I think social bookmarking would be one that would be used for my students. I see a lot of opportunity in social bookmarking as far as collaborating with other educators. Tagging important and useful sites to share with thousands of educators is extremely helpful and makes locating websites and specific ideas very accessible. From this, I could better my lessons and plans for my students. I see these social bookmarking sites not so much as a way to change the way I teach, but as a way to improve my methods for discovering new ideas to use. This is useful in terms of my own personal professional development as a teacher.
Blogging thoughts
Jul 28th, 2008 by mrlesh
When reviewing the big 5 questions listed on the wikispaces page, I started to think about what new skills I would need to teach my students. At a third grade level, students are still in need of many basic skills. Moreover, trying to introduce them to blogging will require many different steps.
First of all, understanding the social aspects of blogging is important for them to understand. Realizing that their post or comments can be read by others is something they don’t really grasp until they see it in action. So, what might be done to educate my students on this whole idea is to write a blog using a projector whole group and then publish it. Shortly thereafter, I could ask one of my students to go over to another classroom and ask one of my team partners to tell us what we published. The students could quickly realize that blogging allows them to extend outside the four walls of their classroom. This isn’t so much a skill as it is common sense, but it is necessary that students understand this about blogging as it is central to its use.
Some important skills my students would need in order to successfully blog would be evaluative skills. First of all, students would need to be able to successfully evaluate good blogs from poorly written ones. We would model reading examples of good blog literature as well as poorly written or uninteresting blogs so that they could become familiar with distinguishing good examples. Then, we would brainstorm on chart paper all the parts of the blog that help it to be interesting and well presented and written. Furthermore, students must be able to distinguish between “thick” and “thin” posts and comments. The students need to become aware of the fact that blogs become better through good evaluative commentary, not quick one word or phrase comments. Helping students to distinguish between well written and poorly written blogs will enable them to become good writers themselves
In a way, this practice will shift the way in which I teach literacy as far as tools are concerned, but this will not change the fact that my students are reading, writing, and evaluating literature. Students will be learning to read and learning to become better writers through a different medium. Instead of reading a story from their anthology or a poem, they might read a fictional story written on a blog. This will allow them to work on the same skills and strategies as they would have from a book, except they will gain the advantages of being able to evaluate and offer commentaries to the author through comments as well as dabble with their own writing.
Multitasking in Chapter 2
Jul 28th, 2008 by mrlesh
One of the parts to Chapter 2 which I found interesting to read about was its section about multi-tasking. Sadly, my high school experiences could relate to the girl who was being interviewed about her experiences with multitasking at home. However, having come from the beginning of that generation and technically being from the “insider“ perspective, I disagree with how the book justifies students’ use of multitasking in the classroom and during professional situations. I am thinking about the case scenario with Mia, who still manages to do well in the class despite multitasking on Xanga while the teacher is asking questions. The book says that insiders aren’t so much bored, inattentive, or attempting to be disrespectful when they multitask as they are trying to maximize their use of the internet. They still do the adequate amount necessary to complete an academic task while multitasking; however, this is where I become frustrated. Students do the “adequate” amount. They don’t excel or truly focus their full efforts on the task…they just do what they need to do in order to get by. Although someone like Mia is still doing very well in class, she isn’t pushing herself to do her best. Certain work will require all students to devote their full attentive and focus to it, especially when one enters adulthood and looks to build a successful career. I have seen many young adults my age texting a friend while they’re talking to someone directly in front of them, for example, and even though I’m relatively close to their age, I still consider it a disrespectful act. Perhaps I see things from an older generation‘s perspective too much. I can see allowing students to multitask on several academic websites at the same time as being a productive and worthwhile experience, but I still have issues with the example presented with Mia in the book. I see it more as a lack of social etiquette having been taught to students than them wanting to “maximize their experience” on the internet. They could work toward “maximizing” their academic experience if they focused more intently on the class instead of on a friend’s Xanga site. Multitasking allows students more flexibility and free choice in their learning, but it has disadvantages that need to be assessed and considered when internet access becomes a part of the learning.
My 21st Century Classroom
Jul 25th, 2008 by mrlesh
I’ve tried to think of how I would alter the structure of my classroom to bring it up-to-date with 21st century practices. Some of the necessary changes have already been made, but there are other important aspects to a 21st Century Classroom that still need to be implemented in my room in order for my students to gain its full benefits. Overall, this is what I envision my classroom looking like in an ideal 21st century setting:
Students are working collaboratively on projects, perhaps projects regarding the human body in Science class, while the teacher monitors each group, circling the classroom and providing individualized and group instruction when necessary. The teacher might pull a few students back to a table at a time to review the science concepts being taught today about the human body and to provide clarification to their projects using a rubric that’s been given to them. Groups are being assessed on their contribution to their projects, the creation of an adequate hypothesis, and successfully testing their hypothesis and explaining their experiment in a conclusion. Each group has composed their own unique hypothesis about the human body. Students are using Science books provided to them to do research and accessing the internet to gather more information. Some students may even be using a web-based program to experiment with how ball-and-socket and hinge joints move to test their hypothesis. Technology is being accessed seamlessly by students. When it comes time to assess students, they understand what has been expected of them because of their rubrics, and they are assessed on their overall performance on the project.
A scenario like this is ideal for the 21st century, but it is one that is not going to occur with every lesson. There are times when traditional teaching will still need to take place. However, incorporating concepts like collaboration, self-directed learning, and authentic assessment into one’s classroom whenever it can be done effectively is important for students’ preparation for and success in the real world.
Collaboration and Change
Jul 25th, 2008 by mrlesh
Wednesday’s class gave us another opportunity to emulate how a 21st century classroom works. Distributed and collaborative learning allows students the chance to discuss their ideas with one another, providing social interaction and allowing them to do work that would be otherwise much more difficult to accomplish on one’s own. Creating a concept map of the 21st Century Classroom (21st CC) using Gliffy in small groups gave us that chance. On my own, I would not have been able to efficiently piece together so many aspects of a 21st CC in that amount of time. Everyone’s contribution to the concept map gave us a much clearer vision of what it should look like. Additionally, the activity was much more engaging and enjoyable when working with others. You feel much more confident in your work knowing that you’ve pooled similar ideas together with your peers as opposed to working on your own. Collaborating together was an important reminder of what our students can accomplish when working efficiently together and how it can bolster their confidence in their work.
Also, I enjoyed watching the “Did You Know?” video at the end of class. The world is constantly changing, as is evident by the shifts in technology, literacy, and populations in the world. As educators, we need to be flexible to these changes, especially with our use of technology. Being flexible with what we teach and use in the classroom will hopefully set an example for our students, who will also need this ability in order to succeed in our ever-changing world.
Creativity and Communication
Jul 22nd, 2008 by mrlesh
Today’s class gave me an opportunity to look into the technology standards for both students and teachers. It was interesting to see how much of an emphasis was placed on creativity and communication for both the student and teacher. These are two categories that seem to be increasingly difficult to find in some students. A lot of the natural creativity that students used to display has been replaced by their focus and dependency on technology, and this is something I’ve found difficult to accept. Students don’t seem to be as willing to artistically create new things when they’re given all the imagination they could want inside a video or computer game. Despite attempts to inspire them, they persist with the “I can’t” attitude. I’ve also found that they have difficulty with basic communication among one another. Verbal and physical fighting has occurred simply because they didn’t communicate with one another. I’m a bit fearful of their ability to succeed in life without the ability to create and communicate. However, although I was beginning to think that students had lost these abilities, when I read through the descriptions of the standards for technology, I think I gained a little insight. Students’ creativity and communication skills have just transferred, in part, to being expressed through means of technology. My students have surprised me with being able to talk to one another through instant messaging, interactive websites, and their own personal blogs at the age of 8. Similarly, they are creating their own pets and designing their own MMORPG characters in computer games. Even though there’s a certain framework provided for them to create, they’re still taking part in creating something unique to them. Inspiring students to create new things and initiating communication with them may seem frustrating at times, but I think that this may be due to the fact that they have shifted the way in which they do these things. In the future I will need to rethink how I allow them to express creativity and communicate with both me and their peers. Providing them with more access to technology may surprise me with how creative and communicative they can be. I think that the standards that have been established for both teachers and students in technology have set good goals to reach for.
We began class by discussing some of the ways in which we’ve integrated technology into our classrooms as well as some of the difficulties with incorporating technology. As we talked about our successes and issues with technology, I found that I could relate to several experiences, especially the concerns for time, students’ appropriate use of technology during class, and security. Although I only teach third graders, there are still many things to watch out for when first introducing them to technology.
The wiki spaces website appeals to me for both graduate class use and for use in my own classroom. The major issue that wiki pages seem to have is with granting everyone the ability to edit pages; however, I was not aware of the ability to check every detail under the “history” section. In a graduate level program, there’s no worries in my mind with allowing every individual that power, but in a classroom with young children, there’s always the risk that a student might try to inappropriately edit another student’s post or even the teacher’s post, for that matter. The history check reassures me a bit, if I were to incorporate that tool into my own classroom.
I think the wiki space and education blog sites are interesting because they lend to what I want to accomplish moreso in my classroom in the upcoming years; extended communication. Communicating globally and within my school and other schools in the district is a goal I would like to better establish through learning about these tools. The education blog site is certainly something that I could use to update parents and families on their children’s progress, but the wiki space page seems like something I could for student-to-student interaction. Whether it would be classroom-to-classroom within my school or outside to somewhere else in the district or country, I’m not sure yet…But so far, the tools we’ve been presented with offer some options for my classroom.
Hello world!
Jul 21st, 2008 by mrlesh
Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs.
To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.
There’s stacks of great supporting material too! Take time to view our some helpful introductory videos, read through our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.
You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.
And finally, if you like Edublogs but want to be able to simply create, administer, control and manage hundreds of student and teacher blogs at your school or college, check out Edublogs Campus… it’s like Edublogs in a box, all for you.
Thanks again for signing up with Edublogs!
