Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom

I found an article at http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml that discusses Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom. When searching for this article I was looking for ways to showcase students work using technology. This article goes in depth to present the uses of electronic portfolios and how they can benefit students of all ages. Not only will the site give you ideas, it also will guide you towards building them.

The whole idea of a portfolio is to collect pieces of your best work to show how you have grown, the effort you have exemplified, and all your achievements over a period of time. A portfolio is made to be a resemblance of you and your hard work. This is not the only purpose of a portfolio though; there are three common names of portfolios: working, display, or an assessment. Each of these names serves as a different purpose as to which material it will contain. Each portfolio has a process in which it will be developed. There are five common steps to take including selection, collection, reflection, direction and connection. If these five steps are showcased in your portfolio it will most likely be a success. What I thought was the best part of this whole article was the idea of making a digital portfolio. The benefits of it being a digital portfolio is its ability to be interactive, create hyperlinks, and it can be easily transported or duplicated. Another nice feature of making digital portfolios is it can be developed for any age group. It might take time to teach them how to use the technology but besides time, the rest is all done by the students. They are able to add in what they feel is important to them, such as unique skills, their knowledge, and be able to explain their reasons why they feel that way.

This is the 21st century and students are becoming more and more familiar with the use of computers. They have the ability to use a computer and develop their own unique digital portfolio. This is exciting for students and they take pride in making it their own. Last year, I had my student make a digital portfolio and I thought it was one of the most useful and productive activities we did all year. I burned it onto a disk for them to keep as a memory keepsake when they graduated from fifth grade.

"A Day in a Fifth Grader's Shoes"

This is an informative video podcast of what it is like to be a fifth grade student at Jefferson Elementary School. This video is narrated by a fifth grader who will guide you through his Wednesday schedule. This will be helpful for students who are entering the fifth grade at Jefferson Elementary. This video includes brief class descriptions and teacher profiles.

Also, here is the link for my video.

http://tchropka.podomatic.com/player/web/2008-11-30T08_44_01-08_00

Morning Announcement Podcast

This is a podcast that I created for the morning announcements. The announcements are recorded everyday by fifth grade students. These announcements are played and recorded for teachers to play every morning during homeroom. I enjoyed being part of the morning announcements by providing my podcast. I used audacity to record the announcements and I plan to use it more in the classroom for other activities. To listen to my podcast please click on the title Morning Announcement Podcast above.

My Podcasts

I started to search for Podcasts that related to education. I decided to start with The Education Podcast Network because we talked about this site during class. I was not thrilled with using this site to find podcasts related to the elementary grades. It was very difficult to find a podcast that interested me and not all the links had a podcast with it, but I did come across one. It was a video podcast titled Penn Manor School District News: Middle School Gifted Program. To watch this podcast go to http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=345&openpod=16#anchor16 and go to the POD labeled Middle School Gifted Program. This podcast provided a detailed description of the gifted program in the Penn Manor School District. I thought this was a great idea for students leaving the elementary gifted program and entering middle school program. This would provide them with a great tutorial of what projects are available in gifted, how to handle your schedule, and what classes to take. By watching this podcast I thought of different ideas I could do use when I implement podcasts into my classroom. I subscribed to several other podcasts but this one provided me with the most ideas.

Another podcast that I subscribed to was called Kid Cast. These podcasts were posted by Dan Schmit and my favorite one was called Kidcast #56 – Questions Make the World Go Round at http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/?p=133. While listening to his podcast I was able to get great ideas on how to form questions for my students. He broke down Blooms Taxonomy and built questions around the different levels. This podcast will help teachers to understand how to use a podcast to ask high level questions. I was able to take many ideas from listening to this podcast. The one idea that stuck out was the “question game.” This game was used to keep students asking questions, by forming their answer into another question. This is made to help students brainstorm and move toward the big question of evaluation. All of these ideas were formed around using podcasts in the classroom to expand students’ ability levels and challenge them to think outside of the box.

While searching for student made podcasts I found this wonderful podcast at http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/shows/Willowcast31.html. This website related to grades K-5 and I chose to focus around fifth grade because that is the level I am currently teaching. While searching for a podcast I found one relating to social studies which is a subject that I teach. I listened to a podcast that focused around the 2008 election. This podcast gave great details on how to become president with Fast Facts, Vocabulary Theater, Terrific Trivia, and many other great details relating to the office of President of the United States and our election process. This podcast was well organized and allowed the students to be engaged in social studies without making it boring. The students seemed well prepared and sounded excited about providing the information for the listeners.

After subscribing and listening to a number of podcasts I found them to be very beneficial. I can think of many ways podcasts can be effective, but the most important of them all is it engages the students into the curriculum. By having them create a podcast they are using their knowledge and understanding to apply and analyze the information to evaluate their find product the podcast. I plan on using the ideas that I listened to from all the different podcasts and start integrating them into my classroom.

New Tools: Blogs, Podcasts and Virtual Classrooms

I was searching for an article that related to using new tools in the classroom and found this article http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/technology/techspecial3/03ethan.html. The article was titled, New Tools: Blogs, Podcasts, and Virtual Classrooms. This article discusses a classroom that consistently uses podcasts in their classrooms. This class designed an online radio show in the form of a podcast to feature daily news, activities, and other related areas. The students who are involved in this production are third and fourth graders. The number one aspect that matters is, “Are the students motivated to do all the things to keep it running.” This was the key for this teacher because he was able to look over the project, and make sure everything was appropriate and accurate, but the students made all the effort to keep it running. The research these students put forth beside their daily work is incredible. The opportunity this teacher provided his students made not just an impact on the entire school, but the world of technology.

The way the teachers get their students to blog is to make the topic interesting to them. This will jump start the use of blogging worldwide. This opened the door for students to blog about several different subjects to get different view points on topics of concern. No matter what age students are their voice counts and using technology enhances their opportunity to make it heard. Technology is made to be interactive and the classroom needs to be designed around that. Overall, I thought this was an extremely good article about the new tools used in technology. I hope the world understands that students have the ability to contribute to what is going on, if they are given the chance. That chance starts with teachers, parents, and other students working together to make it happen as a whole. It takes hard work, dedication, focus and a lot of other tools to develop the classrooms these teachers made, but it’s only possible if you give it a try.

Flickr

I chose to use Flickr to upload my photos. I decided to upload a variety of photos that represent my family, friends, my girlfriend, vacations, art work, and my classroom. This would be a great way to share photos with parents of our classroom parties. The parents would be able to log on and view all the activities that are happening in our classroom. Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/32325083@N06/ and see what you think of my pictures.

Delicious - Tchropka's Bookmarks

I chose to use Delicious bookmarking, http://delicious.com/Tchropka to bookmark sites that would benefit students, teachers, parents, and myself. It is very convenient to bookmark all the sites that I use daily because it saves time. There are websites that my students could use during computer class by just clicking on my URL link to Delicious. I found great interactive sites for my students to use to improve and practice their skills in different content areas. I also looked for sites that provided teachers and parents with free resources. I am excited that I was able to bookmark all these great resources, so check them out and hopefully you find something useful.

PowerPoint – Creating Classroom Presentations

I was searching PowerPoint presentations and found a fascinating article at http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech013.shtml. I chose to review this article because I incorporate PowerPoint presentations into my lessons weekly. This article explains why PowerPoint presentations are used and how it creates an interactive classroom environment. The benefit of using PowerPoint in the classroom is that it keeps the interest and attention of the students. Students enjoy graphics, text, and interactive material which are user friendly.

This article lists a couple of projects that students completed that were very successful. Another great benefit with PowerPoint is the ability of all grade levels to use it. It can be used to instruct a class, instruction for learning centers, assessments, display student work, slide shows, and student portfolios. The ability to use PowerPoint is easy to understand, but if you are having trouble there is a tutorial for new users on the basics.

The overall benefit of PowerPoint is the ability to use it in the classroom to allow your students to create projects. This will encourage the students to be creative and at the same time become more familiar with technology. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article on PowerPoint and the students’ in my classroom this year get excited about the lesson when I put it in a PowerPoint presentation. I recommend allowing your students to explore using PowerPoint and if you are having trouble click on additional resources for more detailed instructions.

Really Simple Syndication Under Review

I signed up on Bloglines and found 16 feeds that I thought I would be interested in daily. I liked RRS aggregator because it allows the sources that you are interested in to come to you. The information that I subscribed to is updated daily and the latest information is being sent to you. I love sports and thought it was so incredible that I could see news as quick as a couple clicks. I also like how it updates the blog based on the topic of choice. The ability to expand the tab so that you can see all the blogs or just a folder with them inside it makes it user friendly. Another nice benefit about subscribing is that you can delete the subscription whenever you want. I like this feature because sometimes you might think a topic will have what you are looking for and you find out that it does not. Finally, it is easy to subscribe to a blog you like which makes using Bloglines a great RSS aggregator.

I hate to name the negatives of things, but the Bloglines was not as easy to use as I thought it would be. This made it challenging for me because I was subscribing to websites that I was interested it and was not ready for all the information at once. I have been checking my categories that I chose and it has been wonderful to use and greatly appreciated.

Reading, Writing, and Technology: A Healthy Mix in the Social Studies Curriculum

I found an article at http://www.readingonline.org/articles/tancock/index.html that was titled Reading, Writing, and Technology: A Healthy Mix in the Social Studies Curriculum. This article discusses how to integrate technology into a social studies curriculum with students between ages 9 and 10. The article introduces how students know how to use technology when developing projects and writing about a certain topic. To prepare our students for this society, we as teachers need to challenge our students with problem solving skills, applying information, and to access data. It is important for teachers to effectively integrate technology into all content areas to help students expand their knowledge and skills. The article states that teachers do not have time to preview sites or use software in the classroom, and I disagree with this statement. I think this article is describing teachers that are set in their ways of doing things when technology was not as accessible.

The project that this article describes is on how to integrate a social studies curriculum in a creative and significant way to help develop reading and writing skills. Technology is used to help students of all abilities; such as cultural, literacy skills, and ability. Several teachers applied for a small grant which they received on integrating technology into the curriculum. This grant allowed them to focus on how to begin the process of integrated technology into a social studies curriculum to enhance reading and writing skills. They decided to split the project into two parts; one to create WebQuests for each region and two to design presentations on various regions using Microsoft’s PowerPoint software. To enhance their experience the teachers purchased a data projector, which allowed the students to interact and be engaged away from the computer. The students were taught how to use search engines to find research useful for their project. The teachers also taught students how to set up PowerPoint, use spell-check, insert graphics, input sound, and use transitions. The parents were able to visit the school to see the presentations and they were extremely impressed with the opportunities and knowledge their children had applied to their projects.

Overall, this project was obviously a huge success for these teachers, students, and parents. It is a fact that technology allows for interesting, exciting learning to take place in the classroom. I believe from reading this article that these teachers successfully taught students how to use technology, which improved their reading, writing, and literacy skills. I was very impressed with this idea, that I plan on meeting with other teachers in my grade level to discuss similar projects. My final regards to this article is that children know how to use technology, but we as teachers need to open up the curriculum into the 21st century world of technology and help to improve these skills in the classroom. Using these technology resources in the classroom will highlight strengths and weaknesses among your students’ abilities to read, write, and comprehend what is necessary for their success.

Education Wiki Contribution

Mr. Monson's Grade 5 Classroom is trying to complete a project called, Thousands Project October 2008. This project is designed for people to respond to the question of the month. This month’s question is Things We Do to Reduce Trash Waste at School, Home or Work. I was able to contribute ten things that I do at home and school to reduce waste. The goal is for his classroom to reach 1,000 entries by end of each month. I thought this was a great activity for his students' and him to create on wikispaces.

Kids Prefer Reading Online (Blog)

I found this interesting debate that was on http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/kids-prefer-reading-online/ by Will Richardson. The blog post was titled Kids Prefer Reading Online. The blog discusses the issue that reading online is considered “real” reading. I agree that we as teachers or parents need to provide a balance of reading digital text verse regular print. It is interesting how kids understand how to text message without being told, so why would they need taught how to read on the internet. This point brings up the issue with every kid; if they want to do it they will find a way and if they don’t they will find an excuse. The internet is a great source for kids if they are supervised using it for educational use.

This blog on such an interesting issue allowed me to really think about the way we should help students stay focused on teaching them effective ways to utilize technology. This blog had 16 comments and each comment made good points on how to obtain a balance with reading in both dimensions. Overall, this is a topic that will be discussed again and again, but the one main issue is our students depend on the computer for everything.

"How Should Schools be Using Tech to Teach?"

I read an article, “How Should Schools be Using Tech to Teach?” by Samantha Cleaver. This article can be found at, http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Tech_in_Schools/. This article was titled “How Should Schools be Using Tech to Teach?” and is focusing around how to integrate technology for the 21st century into today’s classrooms. I was amazed to find that collected data proves that teens are using the internet for educational networking more than we may think. Students want to use technology and enjoy communicating about topics related to their education. I also strongly agree with the statement this article makes about how problems are getting more complex for our students in the 21st century. It is vital for students to understand how to solve problems and use all available tools in the process to set up their formula on how to analyze and solve the problem. It is very true that students today have access and the availability of technology, but are they using it to better themselves for the future? I personally think they are not. There needs to be more focus on using it in the classroom to practice these real-world skills.

This article has several unique reviews on how teachers have had their students use podcasts, blogs, wiki, and other means of technology resources in their curriculum. I picked one of these reviews that I thought related to my grade level. I chose the article about social networking using http://www.imbee.com/ to teach young students the use of social networking. This website allows students, age seven to twelve, a way of creating a virtual world. This is the first free social network designed for young people and is a great way to allow students to communicate using technology. The one nice benefit of this site is that the site is approved by both parents and teachers which help to eliminate a lot of issues. The site has many activities for students, but the one that caught my eye was the different trading cards students could design. Overall this article is making the point that, we as teachers need to be aware that students do have the capabilities to use technology and are currently using it daily in their lives. We need to take the initiative and expand their knowledge in problem solving, collaborating, and analyzing information instead of simply copying and pasting information.