Wow! It seems like we just started on this journey and as I look back at all of the new tools I have learned about I feel like I wish there were more time to delve into the possibilities. I'm sure that in the coming classes there will be more opportunities to put these exciting tools to use as well as in our schools and classrooms. I have always felt comfortable with technology and I tend to catch on pretty quickly just playing around with the tools. I was talking to a colleague of mine the other day and told her I have so many ideas for the higher grade levels but need to figure out a way to make a lot of these tools work for my first graders. I have already contacted the librarian at my school about collaborating with her this year with some of the new tools I have learned about.
I had heard of podcasting before and have even listened to a couple in some of my other classes when I was taking classes for my licensure. I hadn't really explored the web to see what was out there in terms of educational podcasts for ideas to use when teaching. I thought the list we were given to explore had a lot of great ideas and I hope to have some time to be able to listen to more. The ones I found most valuable were the TedTalks and the ones I found at: http://www.shelleducation.com/podcasts/.
I have definitely become a fan of PowToon. When we were given the assignment to explore those sites I didn't really see all of the possibilities with that program. I really enjoyed seeing more ideas come to life with the on-site group presentations that were created when one of the groups used PowToon's to create their presentation.
I am really interested in using combinations of QR codes and audio messages together in the classroom library. I think this is a great way to help those struggling readers with books that they can't necessarily read on their own. I haven't fully grasped the concept of Augmented Reality but got some great ideas and hope to have some time to develop the ideas and learn more about the programs.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Staying Current
Websites...
Wow! I could spend hours going through all of these websites watching the videos on how to use them it took me a while to narrow it down to my top 4 choices. I mainly focused on the ones that are usable with elementary age students since I teach in elementary and hope to be a librarian in an elementary school.
Meograph - http://www.meograph.com/ - is a digital storytelling tool that can be used for presentations or telling stories. Meograph uses pictures and videos together with narration and music to create a presentation. I am going to talk with my librarian this year about a collaboration between the classroom and library when we are working on our Holidays Around the World unit. I would like to have the librarian work with the students on researching certain holidays and in class we will learn about them and have activities dealing with each holiday. We can take pictures while we are creating crafts, eating foods, etc and put the things they learned in the library together with the things we have done in class to create a Meograph about their experience. Grades K-12
eduCanon - http://www.educanon.com/ - is a tool where teachers can add multiple choice questions throughout a video they are showing to the class. The students can select their choice and then it will tell them whether their choice is correct or not and give a justification (if the teacher provides that). Questions can be added throughout the video and videos can be shortened to just show portions of the video (if the whole video doesn't need to be shown). This would be a great tool to use as an introduction to the Library at the beginning of the year. The librarian can video herself giving a tour of the library and the video could stop at certain points to ask questions about what they have learned so far.
Kahoot! - https://getkahoot.com/ - is a game-based classroom response system. This tool is different than many classroom response systems because the students do not need special equipment. Any device that can access the internet will work. Students do not need an account, they will just join the "room" the teacher has created using their personal (or school provided) device. I really like this because a lot of times there is not a full set of electronic devices so you could gather a couple of iPads, some laptops, desktops, etc. and all students could participate or if your district participates in bring your own technology the students can use their own device. I would use this in the classroom for creating games/quizes to use as review or as an assessment of student's prior knowledge.
Stoodle - http://stoodle.ck12.org/ - lets you collaborate online with a white board page where you can draw, type, add pictures, videos, etc. It also has a microphone so participants can talk to one another. It offers the capability of video conferencing as well. I think this would actually be a great tool to set up a "homework helper" club with students. Students in 4th or 5th grade could sign up to be "homework helpers" and they could stay after school to be available online at a certain time for others to ask questions or get help with their homework.
Blogs and Such...
This week gave me an opportunity to reflect on all we have learned in this course and how I plan to stay current.
We have used this blog a couple times throughout this course and prior to being tasked to think about how I would stay current I was already planning to continue following this blog - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ - this site is a great resource for compiling free technology resources for teachers/librarians. I plan to share this website with my coworkers when school starts back.
Another blog that I enjoyed reading was "The Library Voice" by Shannon Miller. She offers lots of information and online copies of presentations she has done in the past. A collection of library and technology resources and she is big on helping children have a "global voice" via blogging.
I'm so glad the folder on Keeping Track was included in this weeks assignment because I hadn't thought about how I would keep track of the amazing resources we have learned about this semester. I will probably use Pinterest to keep track of all of the sites we have explored since I already have a Pinterest account and I am familiar with using it. The other tool that I am considering is Symbaloo because I like how it just shows a small symbol for that website and it is a quick reference to gather all of the sites we have learned about.
Wow! I could spend hours going through all of these websites watching the videos on how to use them it took me a while to narrow it down to my top 4 choices. I mainly focused on the ones that are usable with elementary age students since I teach in elementary and hope to be a librarian in an elementary school.
Meograph - http://www.meograph.com/ - is a digital storytelling tool that can be used for presentations or telling stories. Meograph uses pictures and videos together with narration and music to create a presentation. I am going to talk with my librarian this year about a collaboration between the classroom and library when we are working on our Holidays Around the World unit. I would like to have the librarian work with the students on researching certain holidays and in class we will learn about them and have activities dealing with each holiday. We can take pictures while we are creating crafts, eating foods, etc and put the things they learned in the library together with the things we have done in class to create a Meograph about their experience. Grades K-12
eduCanon - http://www.educanon.com/ - is a tool where teachers can add multiple choice questions throughout a video they are showing to the class. The students can select their choice and then it will tell them whether their choice is correct or not and give a justification (if the teacher provides that). Questions can be added throughout the video and videos can be shortened to just show portions of the video (if the whole video doesn't need to be shown). This would be a great tool to use as an introduction to the Library at the beginning of the year. The librarian can video herself giving a tour of the library and the video could stop at certain points to ask questions about what they have learned so far.
Kahoot! - https://getkahoot.com/ - is a game-based classroom response system. This tool is different than many classroom response systems because the students do not need special equipment. Any device that can access the internet will work. Students do not need an account, they will just join the "room" the teacher has created using their personal (or school provided) device. I really like this because a lot of times there is not a full set of electronic devices so you could gather a couple of iPads, some laptops, desktops, etc. and all students could participate or if your district participates in bring your own technology the students can use their own device. I would use this in the classroom for creating games/quizes to use as review or as an assessment of student's prior knowledge.
Stoodle - http://stoodle.ck12.org/ - lets you collaborate online with a white board page where you can draw, type, add pictures, videos, etc. It also has a microphone so participants can talk to one another. It offers the capability of video conferencing as well. I think this would actually be a great tool to set up a "homework helper" club with students. Students in 4th or 5th grade could sign up to be "homework helpers" and they could stay after school to be available online at a certain time for others to ask questions or get help with their homework.
Blogs and Such...
This week gave me an opportunity to reflect on all we have learned in this course and how I plan to stay current.
We have used this blog a couple times throughout this course and prior to being tasked to think about how I would stay current I was already planning to continue following this blog - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ - this site is a great resource for compiling free technology resources for teachers/librarians. I plan to share this website with my coworkers when school starts back.
Another blog that I enjoyed reading was "The Library Voice" by Shannon Miller. She offers lots of information and online copies of presentations she has done in the past. A collection of library and technology resources and she is big on helping children have a "global voice" via blogging.
I'm so glad the folder on Keeping Track was included in this weeks assignment because I hadn't thought about how I would keep track of the amazing resources we have learned about this semester. I will probably use Pinterest to keep track of all of the sites we have explored since I already have a Pinterest account and I am familiar with using it. The other tool that I am considering is Symbaloo because I like how it just shows a small symbol for that website and it is a quick reference to gather all of the sites we have learned about.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Layered Reality
I am so excited about the possibilities with using these tools we have explored this week. I have a million different ideas running through my mind and I can't wait to write up a Donor's Choose project to get some iPad's in my classroom to use with these tools. I created 3 different QR codes: one with each of the programs and it was SUPER EASY! I couldn't believe how easy it was. I have never worked with QR codes before and thought it would be a lot of work...boy was I wrong! The first QR code I made using QR Code Monkey - I linked a Youtube video (an interview with an author) to this code and I have two ideas of ways to use it. It could be put in/on books written by this author so that the students/teachers/parents could learn more about this author before or after reading the book or there could be an "Author's Corner" which could be a bulletin board or even just a poster board with featured authors of the month and you could have a picture of the author or their books with the QR code beside it.
The next QR code I made using QR Voice - since I did this on the Fourth of July, I just put a "Happy 4th of July" message on it. Again, very simple to use and I think this option would be best for short/simple instructions as you are limited to 100 characters.
The third program I worked with was I-Nigma. Very simple to use, it only took me a few seconds to link the website and with this one I linked my "Library" website. The idea I had for the library website was to put the QR code on a beginning of the year welcome back letter to students and parents and they can scan the code to take them to the library website. Hopefully, this would draw more students and parents into using the resources on the library website right from the beginning of the year.
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