Learning About 2.0

I have a tremendous sense of accomplishment after working through the 23 Things (still wrapping up #23).  I am pleased that I have learned about the Web 2.0 tools in this course and have a basic understanding of how to use and incorporate them in the classroom.  I did find some Web 2.0 Tutorials to view to refresh my memory as needed.  Now if I just had more time to devote to really using these tools…  I have told others about this GREAT course and am very thankful to have been able to take such a practical technology course online! THANKS

Ning is a wonderful tool that allows people to create all sorts of networks based on a wide range of topics from professional development to news and current events to support groups.  I found some useful info on Ning 2.0 and I enjoyed some watching some informative videos.  It is interesting to see the photos of members- different people from around the country and world-these connections are really amazing.  I read Christopher Dawson’s “7 Things You Should Know About Ning” and “Ning! My Space is Dead”.  He suggested that every student in a class could be a member of the teacher’s network.  All students could create their own page and the teacher would be a friend to all the students for easy communication.  Under Media I found a college student who created “Brainypics.com”  -a media contest for SAT vocabulary words.  The video shows 5 word definitions and then the interesting visual created to depict the word – aspersion, fabricate, inimical, defile, eschew.    I found another educator’s video of her 5 favorite educational resources and really liked her free ed. videos on watchknow.com  and wealth of resources on havefunteaching.com.  Havefunteaching.com has a category for media with YouTube for Teacher videos ready for viewing.  Another blog entry mentioned how Ning is great for school alumni groups to connect or perhaps students who study abroad and want to stay connected .  Educators have the opportunity to create social networks around academic topics of interest such as math, science, reading, etc.

Wow, these Web 2.0 tools just keep getting better and more fascinating!  How cool that the teacher can arrange an assortment of flakes on one customized web page. I am glad that you included the Help videos.  I experimented on the template with aspects that I would want to include on my class Flakes page.  The tools I like are WeatherChannel-for checking daily weather during “Calendar Time”, Dictionary, Wikipedia, Google, Sticky Notes.  I would include a calendar, photos, and favorite Bookmarks. In my classroom students could follow daily current events, view educational videos related to the curriculum and follow one another’s blogs.

In my Google Reader, I noted an informative blog by Steven Anderson about a new Google search engine called “Google Squared” that was quietly released in June.  It is beneficial to students and everyone in that it sorts a broad category and presents the info in a table with horizontal boxes with attributes that allow students to quickly scan each item in the list and some key info about the subject  to narrow research.  For example, if you type in Dogs, Google Squared sorts a list of dog breed types, shows a photo, gives height, weight.  If you type in baseball teams, you get a list of teams with a picture of team logo, location city, owner, and times the team played in a World Series.  Another example showed the scientific elements with name , photo, color, etc.  The teacher may also customize the results of a topic for her students and delete some results if desired.

I had a positive experience with Google Docs and am thrilled to learn about it!  I practiced formatting skills and informed my sons that they now had a website they can use to work on grouop projects/presentations where each can contribute their own parts to a single shared document/presentation.  I created a first grade newsletter with shared grade level info that teachers can contribute to and edit to fit individual classes with personalized info.  I used a prepared template and formatted different text sizes and added a gingerbread pic to go with the story of the week-The Gingerbread Man.   My ideas for using Google Docs in the classroom are:  students record each individual’s part of a group project and collaborate to create  a single document (Example:  Rocks- Students research types of rocks and prepare 1 document for Sedimentary, Metamorphic, and Igneous).  The teacher can use G.D.  to track homework, books read by students, etc.  The teacher can promote writing by working with students and giving comments and guidance with comment feature,  Teachers can update and shared lesson plans in a single document.

My Google Reader receives blogs from techlearning.com and this interesting post about 3 math sites created by Colleen King is very useful for finding out about 3 terrific math games!  The post is titled “Join Me @ Math Playground Part II” .  Math Playground offers engaging math games and puzzles for students.  Teachers can also find or create worksheets, find practice flashcards, use video tutorials, or have students work with interactive manipulatives. Thinking Blocks helps students develop algebraic reasoning skills by having them use online manipulatives to work out problems and receive feedback from a tutor.  Math Apprentice is a video game in which students take on an intern role of specific jobs that use math skills such as restaurant owner, artist, construction engineer, and video game programmer.  Students discover the real world use of math.  Bob Sprankle says, “The tools are completely free (supported by unobtrusive advertising) and are geared towards Elementary and Middle school students with scaffolded activities for learners at all levels. Colleen’s work is truly an Internet treasure that will benefit students and improve your instruction.”

I enjoyed exploring the following tools:  30Boxes, Picnik, Weebly, Letterpop, and ToonDoo.  In order to better understand the unique features of some of these, I also viewed some YouTube tutorials which really show me how to use these great free tools!  I think students would really be motivated and very excited to create and type speech bubbles using ToonDo.  Students can create their own comics to express views and tell stories.  One can choose from a wide variety of premade colorful characters-people and animals and backgrounds.  ToonDo can be used in the classroom for telling/ retelling a story, illustrating concepts, defining vocabulary, and family history.

I visited Prove It-2008 on K-12 Online Conference and viewed “We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff with Blogging Mentors”. A Canadian Grade 1 teacher and a university professor who taught student teachers have paired up for 2 years and created this video to show the positive effects of having a blogging mentor on first graders’ writing. The video shows these 2 teachers talking together about the process and results and interviews with first grade students. The children were asked what they liked/disliked about blogging and about how they think their writing improved. Each first grader was paired with a university student for blogging over the term. The students received pictures of their mentor, could talk on Skype/Yackpack, and the mentors came to meet the children at the end of the term. Having a mentor who read each student’s blog and responded with comments was a huge motivator for the first graders. The university students were able to read and discuss “inventive spelling” characteristic of 1st grade writing, analyze the writing with 2 rubrics, and discuss first grade writing in their classroom. The first graders who were interviewed were excited to have a buddy who wrote back and in a very positive format encouraged better capitalization, punctuation, and helped with spelling. I think this is a worthwhile activity and would be something to try in my own classroom. If college students were not available, one could match older students or parents as blogging buddies. I think this online professional development is quite beneficial. I learn best by seeing ideas put to use in and in action in the classroom and this video was a practical example of how to use blogging mentors to improve the technicalities, attitude, and achievement of young writers.