Twitter...

I have to admit I was not as into Twitter as I was with the other tools and resources that we learned to use over the past eight weeks.  I had added sites such as US News Education, Teachers Net, the Library of Congress, Borders, and TIME to follow at the beginning, but within the last couple of weeks I had also added the suggested pages such as Badger Link, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, and Wisconsin State Superintendent of Education Tony Evers.  I also followed two educators who were in the areas of educational resources and engaging students in the classroom and collaboration.  These people were useful to follow, because they all were related in one way or another to education.  I was able to keep up-to-date on current events on education, along with taking a look at lesson plans and other educators’ opinions on topics.

·         State Superintendent Tony Evers includes a link on his tweet about Diane Ravitch.  Ravitch is a great resource in the field of education.  I read her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System (2010) last semester.

·         Badger Link provides access to online resources.

·         Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction à  I have added a few links related to Social Studies topics and Personal Financial Literacy, which I have taken training to teach within my social studies classes next fall.

·         Diane Ravitch has also been mentioned in tweets on the Teachers Net links.

·         The Library of Congress page has been something I have been following for the past month and a half, because of a workshop I am taking through my district.  I never knew how great this webpage is!  There is so much information included on the site, and I cannot wait to share this information with my students!

I have also followed my classmates, professor, and the Today Show!  The Today Show gives daily news as if you were watching the show!

Reflection on my Personal Learning Network (PLN)!

Throughout the course of Technologies for Collaboration and Learning my personal learning network (PLN) has greatly increased over the last eight weeks.  I have come to learn many new technology tools that I can use within my classroom with my students and with other teachers within my school district.

·         Voice Thread-I found this to be a very handy discussion tool.  I have participated in many online discussions throughout my college years, but to be able to actually record and listen to others’ comments makes the discussions much more interesting.  I find it easier to say my comments rather than type everything out.  Just like when I am responding to emails at school I find it much more personable and handy to just pick up the phone and make a phone call rather than type a conversation.  This would be a tool that I will use in the future in discussion purposes.

·         Blogger-I have never blogged before taking this course.  I have found it to be a great tool to use for discussion purposes.  I could see myself using blogging as a communication tool with parents in my classroom.  It would be great to post a weekly blog to let parents know what is taking place within the classroom.  Parents could also respond with questions or comments they may have at any given time.

·         Wiki-This is another great tool to use for discussion, but also for posting documents to share with others.  I could see using this tool at school, but there is one area that I am not too sure on.  This area is that pages are not locked and others can make changes to the pages that are posted.  Working with fifth graders this may be a problem.  If they are not sure what they are doing or if they accidently delete something than someone’s hard work is all gone!

·         Del.icio.us (Social Bookmarking)-I have found this bookmarking tool to be very handy.  Just last semester I was bookmarking many websites that related to my research papers and class discussions.  I would bookmark these sites on my laptop, along with e-mailing these sites to myself if I needed them at school.  By using del.icio.us I can add it to one place and access this anywhere I am able to connect to the internet.  This would be a nice tool to use with my students when working on a research project by setting up a del.icio.us page.  I would set it by adding a few sites for students to use, and as they found related sites they could bookmark them for classmates to also use for their research.

·         Google Docs-I was very surprised with this tool!  It was great to be able to work on a group project without being in the same room as your group members (because everyone is so busy now days).  There were many areas that could be used in this program such as documents, surveys, spreadsheets, and presentations.  I could definitely see myself using this within my classroom.  Students could sit at their own computers and work on a given project with others in the class.  If they needed more time they could also work from home!

·         Google Page-I have found this as a great tool that organizes all of my web pages that I use on a daily or weekly basis.  Students could set up their own pages with easy to access sites used in the classroom.

·         RSS Feeds-I have always seen the icon on my computer, but I never had set up any RSS feeds.  I found these very interesting.  I set up my blogs into my RSS feeds, and it was very easy to access classmates’ blogs when reading and responding to other blogs.  Students could add these to their own Google pages.

·         Web 2.0 Tools-There were many Web 2.0 tools that were introduced to me throughout the course.  I researched timelines tools, which would be great to use while teaching social studies.  Concept mapping tools would be great in so many subject areas to help students organize their notes and research.  I also found the online story telling tools (creating a short video) and creating a website neat to use.  There are many areas of the tools that I can use with my students in the future.  These could be incorporated into so many subject areas!

·         Flickr-I did not work with this tool much during this course, but it does look very interesting.  I could upload my photos, manage the photos, and share with others.

·         Online Conferencing (WebEx)/Scheduling (Doodle)-I found the online conference and online scheduling to be very easy to use.  I could see myself using these tools when meeting with parents.  My parent/teacher conference schedule could be used within Doodle to give parents a chance to sign up for a time that works the best for them.  In the case a parent was unable to meet in person for conferences I could set up an online conference.

Even though there were many tools that I would use with my students within my classroom there were also a tool that I found interesting, but I could not find myself using this tool on a daily basis in the future.

·         Twitter-I cannot see myself using this tool in the future.  I did find it interesting to follow others in related topics of interest to me.  But I am not a person who comments on what I am doing at various times throughout the day.  I may use this tool to find information on related topics, but I will not use it for other purposes.

I have learned how to use many tools and programs that I can use in my personal learning network (PLN).  I have explained above in each area how I will use each of these in the future, along with using them in the classroom and with my students.  I understand some areas may be more difficult to use in the classroom, because of the internet safety and district policies.  I will check these policies before using specific tools and programs.  I now have many more tools to use in my classroom (more than I could have imagined learning in such a short time)!  I will continue to build my PLN by adding new tools and programs as I come across them.  I am excited to learn more about the CyberSmart tool bar that I have added to my computer.  There are so many new tools that I have yet to explore!

Exemplary Web 2.0 Uses

Throughout the course of last seven weeks in this technology course I have learned to work with many exemplary Web 2.0 tools.  The tools that come to mind at this time include:  Blogger, Timeline Creation,  Webspiration, and GoogleDocs (just to name a couple).  These are the tools I am going to be using for my final lesson plan for the unit development project.  The students are able to work interactively with online tools.  These four tools alone would allow my students to use Blogger as a collaboration tool with their fellow classmates to discuss ideas of the lesson.  The students could be thinking critically and creatively by solving the problems that were presented within the classroom lesson.  The Webspiration software could be used to help students organize their information that they collected and place it in a well laid out diagram.  The students would also be using inquiry to think about how they were organizing the information in a more in depth process.  The Timeline Creation could be used as an interactive online tool to place information in a timely order in which something took place.  This information could finally be placed in the final presentation form of GoogleDocs in the form of a PowerPoint presentation.  This could also be used in collaboration with other classmates with each completing their own part of the presentation over the web.

In order to receive the support from administrators, technology staff, and other staff members I would present an example as the one above in greater detail and explain the various 21^st century skills that would accompany the Web 2.0 tools.  These skills include students discussing and collaborating with their classmates, thinking critically and creatively, along with incorporating inquiry skills into their thinking process.  Hopefully through my explanation and examples they would see the value that Web 2.0 tools would have for students within the classroom.  My example above shows the students participating in one lesson, and they would be using so many skills that they will need for the future!

My Use and Reflection of Del.icio.us

I have never used del.icio.us before beginning this course.  I am sure glad I have been introduced to this site.  I have used favorites on my own computer for years, but if I needed the site at school or work I had to e-mail the site to myself.  This way I can bookmark the site with tags to help me remember what the site contains and log in anywhere I have internet access.  I can also share these sites with others who are interested in the same information as I am!

When first logging back into del.icio.us there were many bookmarks that looked interesting from other classmates. These are a few that I added to my own bookmarks.   After just completing my internet safety my mind has been on blogging.  There was one website that caught my attention titled Landmarks Class Blogmeister, which looks at blogging related to classroom use from both teachers and students from all over the world and our country.  I noticed a website called Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools, which included many different areas of tools that can be used as interactive online resources.  I have also added some bookmarks to my list throughout the last two or three weeks related to my course I am taking through my district related to social studies.  I have found these sites very informational, and it is great to have them right there when I need to access them!  I have also added a few tools that can be used within the classroom such as: Webspiration, One True Media, along with creating slides, books, and websites.

When it comes to using tags for bookmarking my websites my list has definitely grown over the past couple of weeks.  My tags began as pretty basic with the web 2.0 and UWWLibmedia, but now I have extended more of my bookmarks to include what is actually in my bookmarked sites.  I do admit I have usually left the tags similar to what was tagged if I bookmarked a website already found by a classmate.  Looking back at my tags I averaged between three to six tags per bookmark.  If I had to explain tagging to my students I would tell that that tags are what the website is all about.  What are the first terms that come to mind when you look at or think about the website?  These should be the terms that you tag.  Also, how would you remember the website or what were you looking for when you searched for the site?  These would also be tags to bookmark your sites!

The tag clouds that I have used the most often (not related to the web 2.0 and UWWLibmedia, which of course are my top two) include:  classroom, timelines, tools, Twitter, education, history, slideshow, and wikis.  This concludes my top ten tags with more listed afterwards.

Yes, I believe I did make annotations while bookmarking each link.  Annotations are basically notes that I am taking while reading, and in this case I am tagging the words that are coming to mind as I am taking a look at the websites.  The advantage to this is easily being able to find the bookmarks at a later time by remembering what you were looking for when you bookmarked the site.  You will tag the site with bookmarks of what you were looking for at the time.

I could use del.icio.us to connect with others interested in the same topic by looking just at particular tags.  For example, common tags among classmates were education, resources, tools, and technology.  When using the network outside of this course I could use it with my team members at school.  When looking at curriculum lessons one of us could bookmark a site of interest with the other two easily being able to assess the webpage.  It could not only be used with the teachers within my building, but also with the other grade level teachers in the district.  I could use del.icio.us or another bookmarking site with my students through a research project.  I could log in and add many sites that I have bookmarked related to the research topic.  The students could then look at my bookmarked sites, along with adding their own to share with their classmates as they found them!

The website del.icio.us is a very handy website to know all about, and I would highly recommend it to others!

Twitter and Web 2.0 Tools!

I believe that by using Twitter within the classroom it could be both a benefit to me and to my students.  It could personally benefit me in the way that I could type in key words related to a class project or activity.  I could find someone on Twitter that specializes in that particular area that I am looking to incorporate into my lessons.  This person could have ideas out there that they have posted comments on or ideas related to a certain event.  For example, I love history (especially American history)!  I could find a historian that tweets and find out some wonderful information that I could incorporate into my social studies lessons.  My students could use Twitter to help them find information on a certain topic, along with keeping in touch with classmates about homework assignments or questions.  It could also be used as an after school communication tool between parents and teachers.  If parents had homework questions after school they could tweet the teacher for a quick and easy response.  E-mail works the same way, but to me a tweet seems to be a quicker response (especially if it is connected to a cell phone that sends an automatic response).

Twitter and other microblogging tools could be used in many areas of education within the classroom.  While viewing the slide presentation “31 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom” many ideas came to me on how I could personally incorporate Twitter into my lessons.  One way students could use Twitter within the classroom would be to research various areas of their curriculum.  I thought it would be interesting to follow an author or a historian.  These were ideas suggested within the presentation.  Students could also bookmark links to share with other classmates on what they have found while researching.  I thought it would be neat for students to follow another student their age in another country.  This could be used as a pen pal.  They could be learning at the same time about their pen pal’s home town and country.  I also found it very interesting that there were games that were mentioned on the presentation about Twitter.  There seems to be endless ways that students can use Twitter with education tied into it.  I always thought Twitter was just another instant messaging tool, but I have learned that there is much more to it than I originally thought!

I looked at the web 2.0 tool pages that were created by my classmates.  The following three areas were tools that I believe I could use within my own classroom lessons.

1)      Concept Mapping - I believe that students could use concept mapping in many subject areas.  It is an outline format that can be used to organize a set of notes, reading, or research materials.  I have heard of Inspiration in the past, but have actually never used it myself.  I am excited to use this area of tools within a research project with my students.  They could use the concept mapping as an outline to neatly organize their notes, along with creatively thinking how to organize these notes.

2)      Quizzes and Polling - I have used quizzes and polling such as Survey Monkey in the past to take quick surveys online.  I did not think of using it within my own classroom, but after reading about the uses of the tool I believe I could incorporate it into a classroom lesson.  I could use it in a couple of different ways through assessments and surveys.  I could quiz my students on a lesson through basic questions, along with surveying my students on how they believe a certain lesson or activity went in class.  I had not thought of using this before, but now I am thinking of incorporating this into my unit plan as an assessment strategy.

3)      Google Sites & Weebly - I could see myself using Google Sites& Weebly within my classroom.  In the near future I would like to set up a classroom website.  I could list class assignments on this site, daily notes, and resources the students could use for extra help.  I am not sure I would use it with individual students, but a class website would be a nice tool to have within the classroom.

Source Cited            Creative Commons.  (n.d.).  31 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom.  Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_118cfb8msf8.

Unit 5-Technology in the Classroom

Technology is very important in the classroom today.  I can remember working on the old Apple computers back in middle school.  Technology has come so very far within the last ten to fifteen years.  It is amazing the areas of technology that students know today.  As teachers we need to work with our students in the area of technology, because I am sure our students will work with some sort of technology in their future careers.  We need to prepare them for the future!  The articles on technology brought up some very interesting points…

I believe that Alan November brings up some very well written points within the article, Four things ever student should learn…but not every school is teaching.  The first point which is brought up is empathy.  This is when people need to see the points of view of different people.  I believe this is very important in the world today, because we are all not going to think the same way at the same time.  By looking at other points of view we may see ideas that we did not even think of in the first place.  The next three points are good ideas to let students know about the internet.  It is internet safety that will hopefully keep them safe in the long run. The article states a couple of points that many adults today probably do not even know.  Many people may think that once something is deleted it is gone, but it can always be pulled back up.  Just like e-mails can always resurface.  Speaking of web searches there was a discussion on this topic recently, and I realized that the top links are sponsored links.  I always figured these were the best links to search, but now I know to carefully look through my choices.  I usually end up using a link that is further down the page now that I know this useful information. 

I believe that this is information is very important and should be taught to students when they first begin learning about the internet.  In guidance at the beginning of the school year our guidance counselor spoke with the kids about cell phones and the internet.  She reminded them to not post anything they would not mind their parents or others reading.  I think this point hit home to many of the kids.  For next year it would be an idea to not just use this as a one day lesson, but to expand on this area and teach a unit on internet safety.  There is so much out there and one day just not seem like much time!  Our kids need to be reminded that something as fun as the internet can also be very dangerous.  They need to know what is appropriate on the computer/internet and what they should stay away from while searching the web.

David Warlick describes the five areas of a personalized learning environment in the article Technology Transformed Learning Environments.  These five areas consists of learning that is fueled by questions, includes conversation, is responsive to the learner’s actions, shows a learner’s personal identity, and allows the learner to safely make mistakes.  One area of technology that we use at my elementary school is the Odyssey program.  The students are given activities and assignments based on curriculum and grade levels.  I have used the program as a whole group instruction.  These activities have been great in classroom discussions, which fuel the questions and hold a great classroom conversation.  The students are all able to participate within their own way and add answers and opinions into the discussion.  If mistakes are made within the lesson I let the students know that is okay, because we all learn from our mistakes!  When students work individually on the program Odyssey it will also support the five areas of a personalized learning environment.

Delicious and Diigo

I guess what I am the most excited about at this point is being able to save a bookmark in one place and being able to assess it anywhere!  I am always saving at school and at home regarding websites for school and for these courses.  I then always e-mail the link to myself so I will have it one place or the other.  I no longer I have to do this, it is wonderful!

I looked at both Delicious and at Diigo.  I believe both programs would be great to use in schools.  I think it would be a great tool for students to use when searching sites for a school project.  If they are researching at home or at school they can just save their sites as bookmarks and continue at the next place!  I have not worked with both in any great depth at this point, but after watching introduction videos they both have great tools.  They both are able to tag the information to make it easier to find at a later date, along with storing and sharing bookmarks with others.  I am able to find other people who have the same interests in sites as me.  I am able to see what other sites people may have shared that are of an interest to me!  I enjoyed finding out that Diigo is compatible with other programs without even having to open these up.  Bookmarks can be marked as private if you do not want others looking at certain sites.  I think my favorite part was being able to highlight areas and make comments as if I were taking notes on what I was reading.  It saves these notes without having to quicky write these notes on a piece of paper.

I am so excited to add more bookmarks to my Delicious site.  I only have a few in there, but I am sure it will not take long to add too many more!

I also took a look at BuddyMarks, which reminds me of a younger version of Delicious and Diigo.  I signed up for the program, but once I was in I did not seem to find the site as user friendly as the two we have previously used.  BuddyMarks could be used as a social bookmarking site for the younger grade levels in schools.  It seems as if the site has less components to it than Delicious and Diigo, but this may seem easier than a site with many components for younger children.