Summer Web 2.0

Weaving through the Web 2.0 online course has been extremely rewarding. There were challenges and many hours of work. However, the challenges helped me grow, and the hours provided a time for “directed play.” I am so excited about sharing the technology tools with my students and fellow colleagues. As an elementary teacher, one of our main focuses is to teach students to read. Many of the tools that were explored during this course would support the teaching of reading. They would provide an avenue for students to practice their fluency, to listen to other readers, and to read to other listeners. The ability to collaborate through the Ning with teachers in other schools is also exciting. The website that I created to serve as one of my technology toolboxes has been very helpful to my colleague who requested information. We will continue to collaborate.

The web is the limit. And I’m ready to reach for the tools that will best benefit the 21st century learners in Room 108.

The class has been awesome!  Thank you for providing such a rewarding experience.

Facebook was the first social network that I joined (by invitation).  I had heard of MySpace and Facebook, but never had a desire to share my personal life via the internet.  Well, when my sister invited me to join Facebook, I felt somewhat safe.  Well, as soon as I joined, I was informed that members of my address book were also a part of Facebook.  They were added as friends.  Then other friends who knew the added friends were adding me as well.  Too much for me!  The only time I use it is when someone adds me to their network of friends or I receive a message from a friend.    

During the spring semester, our school’s technology lead teacher invited us to become a part of the school’s Ning.  It is a private site for our faculty members.  Within the Ning, there are groups for Activboard users, book reviews, furniture swaps, etc.  We have also developed a wiki for our second grade teachers to collaborate on various topics such as The Homework Myth and Backward Design.   

As I began exploring the Ning, I thought about my family members, some of whom I have not seen in several years.  Creating a Ning to communicate with family members would be a way to receive up-to-date information about one another.  Maybe this will be the avenue which will lead to the rebirth of our family reunions. 

In exploring Classroom 2.0, there were several sites that would be useful for second grade teachers and students.  As I explored Google Earth Hacks, I thought about several students in my 2007-2008 class who were interested in space.  This site allows you to view the enitre Earth in 3D, including zooming in to view your own house.  How cool that would be for the students and teachers to explore!  This would be a helpful tool for geography lessons.  This site was recommended via a discussion on the Classroom 2.0 Forum.   Interactive whiteboards, another interesting exploration, was found on the Live Conversations  Wiki.  View the videos of the to see how interactive whiteboards are used to promote discussion and problem solving in a primary classroom.   

On the Ning in Education site, the Teacher Collaborative is ”a social network of teachers and educators attempting to integrate technology into current curriculum practices by developing global project ideas and classroom partnerships.”  It appears to be a new network.   Also, on a personal level, I was able to find networks related to poetry and acappella song composition.

Social Networking is wonderful way to collaborate with teachers in the United States and throughout the world.  Many of our students are ahead of teachers.  They have their own MySpace or Facebook pages.  They are networking with others throughout the country.  Ning is here!  So we need to join the network and socialize. 

Jamestown Podcast #57-1st Grade Poetry Podcast was one of the feeds in my Google Reader. This peaked my interest because the second grade classes will be collaborating on a unit of poetry throughout the new school year. Sharing this podcast with the students will serve as a motivator for them.

My routine in checking the RSS feeds was to check it each time I completed one of the 23 Things. With the end nearing for completion of the 23 Things, my plan is to schedule a time each week to skim the feeds.

The exploration of Pageflakes was very interesting. Miss Tyler’s Third Grade Pageflake was a very simple page. I liked the Storynory podcast, audio stories for kids. Also, the bookmarks were child friendly. After viewing several flake pages, I attempted to create a page of my own. Well, it is still under construction.

Getting to Know Google Docs had its ease and challenges. It was simple typing the document, inserting a link, and a table. However, when a picture was inserted, the text spacing was changed. When the redo button was clicked, the picture disappeared and I wasn’t able to retrieve it. With a little more work in creating documents using Google Docs, I think it would be beneficial to use with activities that require collaboration. The activity I created was a Getting To Know You activity table in which the students will input information about themselves. The information gathered will then be used to compare, contrast, and categorize student groups. For example, we could compare and/or categorize the number of students born in a certain month, the number of students who live in a particular town, the number of family members, etc.  Teachers may also add information to the chart.  This will help students learn about the interests of their teachers.

The second grade classes will be collaborating on our Fairy Tales’ unit. Google Docs can be used to input the favorite fairy tales of each student. The information gathered can be used as part of the Fairy Tales’ election process we have planned. Another Google Docs collaborative effort for the second grade classes would be to record the results of science experiments using the scientific method. Also, the Google Docs spreadsheet can be used to track the math assessment scores for my students. These scores are sent to the principal after each unit assessment. Google Docs would be a means to share the assessment scores with the principal.

Once upon a time, there was the Tube family. The members are You and Teacher. You branched out and developed a site for posting videos. You invited others to join in the posting of videos. Soon there were a vast number of videos. YouTube was visited by millions of people. Since some of the videos were inappropriate for certain groups, Teacher decided to develop a safe site to share instructional videos for teachers and schools. Today, both YouTube and TeacherTube are visited by millions of people. Because of the millions of viewers who search the sites, You and Teacher Tube live happily.

I was not one of those millions until friends sent me “LB” appropriate videos from YouTube. One in particular that I remember was Dakari (the next Jennifer Hudson), a two-year-old singing “And I am Telling You,” from the movie Dreamgirls. It was truly cute.

So today, I had the opportunity to explore YouTube for myself. I tried to stay in the safe mode by searching for videos about second grade. Even then, there were several that appeared on the sidebar which were inappropriate. One video that was of interest to me was that of second grade students sharing information about activities in which they participate.

I was introduced to TeacherTube through an article in my Google Reader. One of the feeds from Promethean Planet shared that Activtips for the Activboard were now available on TeacherTube. One of the activtips that will assist me in using the Activboard was adding containers to a flipchart. Watch the video to learn more about adding containers to a flipchart.

TeacherTube will probably be the site I would search for videos to use in my classroom. There were several videos on centers that I may use to instruct students on using centers. The instructional videos which include student presentations may be used to assist students prior to their book reports. We could discuss skills needed to make presentations. Then we could record a video on the steps for making presentations.  It has been eye opening viewing YouTube and TeacherTube.

Using Evoca to create my first podcast was exciting. It was a simple way to begin podcasting. Listen as I share ideas for using podcasts in my second grade classroom.

As the children say, podcasting is awesome!  I truly enjoyed the student created podcasts.  Mrs. Edmison’s class created weekly podcasts.  This is a means for assisting students who truly enjoy communicating verbally.  I liked the way each student was given a week to complete a podcast.  The podcasts discussed weekly class activities, class council meetings, etc.   Another podcast was WillowWeb, a radio podcast which included recitation of poetry, sharing of websites, and other news.  The podcasts created by students were of benefit to me. 

The ways to use podcasting in the classroom are limitless.  There are several ways that I would use podcasting in my classroom.  One way is to record the Bible memory verse songs (IICorinthians 9:7b) each week.  Another way of using podcasting would be to record the students book reports monthly.  These could be posted to the website for parents to hear.  Parents often wonder how their child presented the reports.  This would provide the answer.  Podcasts could also be used to share weekly news, homework assignments for students who are absent, steps for completing math strategies such as partial sums algorithm (to assist parents), and poetry.  One additional idea for podcasting would be to podcast the Back to School Night for parents who are not able to attend.  I am excited about the possibility of incorporating podcasts into my classroom. 

In reviewing my Google Reader, one of the feeds was about developing an online book club for children.  LibraryThing was referenced in the article.  So at that time I had an opportunity to explore LibraryThing.   I joined the site and added the books that I am reading this summer.  It was amazing to see the number of people who are also reading these books.   The options to communicate through book talks, blogging, reviews, and groups with those who are reading the same books provide an opportunity to hear the views of others.   It will also give you ideas of books that may be interesting to read.   This may be a way that teachers in area schools can have a book talk without having to meet in person.  As a second grade teacher, I would use LibraryThing personally and professionally and probably not with the students.  A site that could be used with the students would be Lookybook.  It is a website for children which allows parents and children to read a picture book, rate the book, write a review, place on their bookshelf, and purchase.

Delicious is true to its name.  It is awesome!  I love this social bookmarking tool.  Working in delicious reminded me of Habit 5, creating your own learning toolbox, from the 7 1/2 Habits of Effective Lifelong Learners.  Well, I just found another avenue to create my learning toolbox.  I will continue to use this account to bookmark websites that are helpful to me.  I love the option of being able to organize the websites you have bookmarked using tags.  I wasn’t brave enough to include all of the sites that I currently have bookmarked on my computer.  (I will eventually.)  However, I did see that there was an advantage of using delicious.  The tags decrease the time for finding certain sites that you may wish to review.  I love the organizational aspect of the site.   This is also an excellent way to share websites with colleagues.   Using the tags, you will be able to only share the websites that relate to a particular subject, such as math or Making Meaning.  Del.icio.us!  Try it, you’ll like it!