Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom

These were the four Web 2.0 tools I found and a brief description for use in the classroom.

1. Picnik – http://www.picnik.com/
The first Web 2.0 site I decided to learn more about was Picnik. This site is designed to assist making memories by editing great pictures. I thought of several ways that would make it creative, the first being scrap books. Other ideas would be to design pictures for the yearbooks, art class, and other school related activities. Overall, I would benefit from this site because it would teach my students how to use it and have them edit and create photos to use in class.

2. ToonDoo – http://www.toondoo.com/
Another great Web 2.0 resource was ToonDoo. When studying spelling words I sometimes will have them create their own spelling comic strip. Now, instead of having the page outlined for you, you need to have an idea for using the resources. This site has great ways to create your own spelling /grammar comic by making it interesting, funny, and having fun is the only thing that matters. This would be very helpful with students who need help with organization skills.

3. Live Journal – http://www.livejournal.com/
This Web 2.0 tool is a great way to have discussions, blog, and have your own private journal. I thought this tool would be great for any subject area, especially social studies, grammar and spelling, which are the three subjects I teach. I would have the students use the LJ Talk for class assignments. I would have them discuss questions, reports, and other school related topics using the instant messing feature. I would check this assignment by having the students either email me their conversations or print them out. Another great feature of this tool is the blog. I would have students keep a blog for my classroom. They would post new ideas, comment, and add other features to their blog to make it beneficial for them and their classmates. The last tool I found useful, which is more of a personal feature, is the private journal. This journal would be used for more personal use. The students would have to read a current event once a week. This current event could be from the paper, internet, or magazine. They would write a paragraph about what the current event was about and what their thoughts where on the topic. This would help them with know what is happening in the world and keeping them reading and writing.

4. Gramlee – http://www.gramlee.com/
This Web 2.0 tool is great for students in any grade to help them check their documents, emails, papers, blogs and more. I chose this Web 2.0 tool because I teach fifth grade and the one content area I teach is grammar. I thought this tool would help students check their compositions in writing. I also think it would be a good idea for students practice their grammar skills by using this tool. The nice thing is Gramlee is free up to 100 words, but on the downside it costs money. Overall, I think this would be a great tool for students to use to monitor their grammar when writing.

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.