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!

Wikis and GoogleDocs

Within my professional development I can use wikis through discussions with other educators on topics in the area of differentiated instruction in the classroom and various math activities being used in classrooms.  I am currently researching differentiated instruction.  I would like to hear how other teachers are using differentiation within their own classrooms and how well their students have reacted to the concept.  I would also like to hear of math activities that are being used in classrooms, which may also be used towards student differentiation.

While searching wikis through Google I began by looking for wikis related to education.  I came across a website titled Wikis in Education at http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/.  This website has wikis that have been set up by other educators stating how teachers can begin to use wikis within their classrooms based on grade levels and various subject related topics.  I found this site interesting since we have been discussing how we individually can incorporate wikis into our own classrooms.  There were many wikis already created, but one could also create their own based on their own grade level and subject area.  I could use these wikis to search for topics in the areas of math activities and even classroom differentiation.  I specifically looked at wikis in the classrooms, which is located at http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis+in+the+Classroom.

Wikis are different from following blogs, because you are able to see everyone’s posts/ideas at one time.  When using blogs you have to look at each individual post one at a time, but when using wikis it is all presented at one time.  When adding a blog to my RSS feed I can still only look at one idea in depth at a time.   Wikis give me the chance to compile all ideas at once and respond in one response to all if necessary.  When using a wiki it is a collaboration of every one's ideas that are expanded off of one another.  My blog is my individual ideas in which someone can comment on something that I posted, but a wiki is every one's ideas being grouped together into one post and being commented on at once.  Both areas are great communication techniques, but I feel more comfortable using my blog.  When blogging the information I know my individual comments are safe and cannot accidentally be deleted.

When it comes to reading and commenting on the blogs of others I feel like I am clicking in to read the blogs of many of my classmates, but I do not seem to be commenting on any but one or two.  If there was one class blog then all ideas could be read at once, and all comments could be made when thinking about what was just read.  But then again this makes me think of the wiki, but at least comments could not be accidentally changed or deleted. 

My first impressions of GoogleDocs was that it was a very easy program to navigate within the various areas of the program.  I like how the information can be shared and edited by all involved.  I would have loved to have this program years ago in middle school and high school when working on group projects.  There were times when it was hard to get everyone together to work on the project.  By using GoogleDocs everyone could work on the same project on their own time.  I like how one survey can be completed and sent to a whole class at once.  I remember completing surveys and having to ask each person one by one.  The results can easily be compiled and put into a nice presentation that reminds me of PowerPoint including graphs.  It seems very easy to work with and navigate through the program.  I have never used GoogleDocs before, but it is a web took that I will continue to use in the future!