From this web2.0 exploration I particularly like screencasts, Bookr, and sharing videos. Second graders will find Bookr fairly user friendly. Screencasts will be valuable for training sessions that students can control to accommodate their individual needs. Sharing videos offer additional sites for teachers to use to access resources for students to learn from. No doubt virtual worlds has enormous potential, but I can not accept my students accidentally being exposed to a predator/prey scenario while exploring a virtual world.
Library2Play2 has provided me with the ability to learn technological skills that enable me to create tools that students can make use of. My students will be much more technologically savvy as a result of this training program. What student doesn't need that? In addition, my sense of responsibility to teach digital citizenship has significantly increased in that not only do students need to know what to say and how to say it, but how to avoid dangerous situations, be it personal safety or protecting a computer from spyware, etc. I look forward to Library2Play3.
I am delighted with the opportunities I have been given through this program. I particularly like sharing this blog with other people rather than trying to verbally explain what is available online. A better understanding of the online communication processes has come out of all of this.
What could Library2Play2 offer that would improve on this self-paced training? That is a difficult question. Library2Play2 is so well thought out I can't think what would improve it. I need some time to think about this some more. My thank yous to the creators of it.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
2Thing #11 Digital Citizenship
Here is a list of lessons or discussions I plan to have with my second graders this year. The list is compiled from information found at the digiteen2008 wikispace. Digiteen2008 also contains a very nice list of vocabulary terms that can be used to support lessons on computer etiquette. I plan to use the vocabulary terms as time allows this year. Here is the list of lessons the children will need to be introduced to and practice.
1. Never share your family's information or your information: full name, social security number, address, telephone number, age, passwords, or pictures without your parent's permission.
2. Never talk with people you do not know and never arrange to meet someone in person.
3. Only visit protected websites, and with parents' permission.
4. If you are bullied, tell your parents or an adult you trust.
5. Write short messages, saying exactly what you mean, and be polite at all times.
6. Do not plagiarize, download unknown applications, and do close out other people's accounts if they are left open.
7. Limit your time on computers, get physical exercise, and interact with family and friends.
In addition, I plan to introduce my students to Woogi world, where they can learn more and practice the skills I have identified above. See http://www.woogiworld.com/
CoolCatTeacher wrote on these topics, as well. Both sites emphasize additional skills: literacy, communication and learning skills. I completely agree that digital citizenship cannot be taught by one teacher during one year of a child's school years. Rhondda adds that students must be guided through digital literacy and to differentiate between good and bad digital technologies. Good point.
1. Never share your family's information or your information: full name, social security number, address, telephone number, age, passwords, or pictures without your parent's permission.
2. Never talk with people you do not know and never arrange to meet someone in person.
3. Only visit protected websites, and with parents' permission.
4. If you are bullied, tell your parents or an adult you trust.
5. Write short messages, saying exactly what you mean, and be polite at all times.
6. Do not plagiarize, download unknown applications, and do close out other people's accounts if they are left open.
7. Limit your time on computers, get physical exercise, and interact with family and friends.
In addition, I plan to introduce my students to Woogi world, where they can learn more and practice the skills I have identified above. See http://www.woogiworld.com/
CoolCatTeacher wrote on these topics, as well. Both sites emphasize additional skills: literacy, communication and learning skills. I completely agree that digital citizenship cannot be taught by one teacher during one year of a child's school years. Rhondda adds that students must be guided through digital literacy and to differentiate between good and bad digital technologies. Good point.
2Thing #10 Virtual Worlds
There is enormous potential for students to learn at a more memorable level when using virtual worlds. In the reading there is discussion on the ability for students to experience different weather situations, places, and discoveries in a way that a textbook could never provide. Once I get the hang of it with my avatar, I can perhaps take students to different places via virtual world and an Activboard. Absolutely tremendous!
After reloading java, I was able to create an Avatar in Twinity and navigate around London, meeting a few people along the way. As CoolCat Teacher suggested, I had someone take me into the virtual world so that I wasn't so lost. It was night there and few people were mulling around the area. Twinity seems limited in places around London, Singapore and Berlin. Just as another blogger mentioned, there was adult content in the dialogue between Avatars. I'm not sure what avenue I'll take with this with students, but avoiding Avatars might be necessary when visiting one of the virtual places of interest. I think I will try Second Life as well as Twinity. I don't think you can fly in Twinity. Let me know if it's possible.
I have an avatar now on Second Life. It is pretty amazing where and what you can do. I visited a few places and do see the potential for students to explore places as if they were there. Virtual immersion. I was bothered when a dialogue box popped up and I was witness to a conversation between two people, one a predator on the lookout and the other responding to questions. This would be an incident for a lesson in digital citizenship (Post #11) in the classroom, at the very least. How do you prevent the dialogue box from appearing...just explore silently?
After reloading java, I was able to create an Avatar in Twinity and navigate around London, meeting a few people along the way. As CoolCat Teacher suggested, I had someone take me into the virtual world so that I wasn't so lost. It was night there and few people were mulling around the area. Twinity seems limited in places around London, Singapore and Berlin. Just as another blogger mentioned, there was adult content in the dialogue between Avatars. I'm not sure what avenue I'll take with this with students, but avoiding Avatars might be necessary when visiting one of the virtual places of interest. I think I will try Second Life as well as Twinity. I don't think you can fly in Twinity. Let me know if it's possible.
I have an avatar now on Second Life. It is pretty amazing where and what you can do. I visited a few places and do see the potential for students to explore places as if they were there. Virtual immersion. I was bothered when a dialogue box popped up and I was witness to a conversation between two people, one a predator on the lookout and the other responding to questions. This would be an incident for a lesson in digital citizenship (Post #11) in the classroom, at the very least. How do you prevent the dialogue box from appearing...just explore silently?
2Thing #9 Slideshare
Adding life to Power Point makes a lot of sense, it is a useful tool for presenting information. Slideshare enhances not only the quantity of available presentations, but also allows students to learn additional skills for presenting information. The human imagination will probably recreate Power Point by replication and innovation. Students learn in a "two-fold manner", the material in the presentation and the manner in which it is presented, with maybe inspiration for how it could be improved upon. I notice when joining Slideshare you are prompted to get your friends registered, then to upload files to share. I doubt elementary school children will have many to upload. They might find themselves searching on a topic as a resource for information gathering, with concise textual organization involved in what they find.
2Thing #8 Screencast
I like this feature to Web2.0. If each student had a copy of the screencast on their desktop, they could follow instructions step-by-step at the needed pace. I can't think of the number of times I have used ActivBoard to demonstrate the steps to working on the class's wikispace, only to have students be at many different places at any given moment. It usually means leaving the board with an image and then rotating around the room according to students' hands in the air asking for help.
It appears at first blush that Camtasia could be used to create video texts that could be "read" to students and then annotated in a way where students could see and hear how to refer back to a text to capture information for a reading objective (main idea, summary, cause and effect, etc.). This would save teachers from repeating lessons on a topic and would allow a great lesson to be created and saved for future use. It could then be embedded into a wikispace (maybe?) or blog so that students could refer to it as a tutorial or review, if needed. This application has a 30 day free trial, then purchasing option. The option to download a free key isn't available either. The tutorial is not so user friendly that I would pursue this any further. However, it does look like a great application.
I think I will go with the FreeScreencast, which doesn't require a download and is supposed to be simple. This too isn't proving to be easy. I downloaded the Recorder (no downloads?), then attempted the also necessary Windows Media Encoder. This would not download because of Windows Logo testing failure, claiming the encoder incompatible with Windows XP. Windows is incompatible with Windows. I think I'm drowning and will search for a lifeguard.
I am going to jot some notes I appreciate from reading Sue Waters' blog.
1. Camtasia lets you record and edit your screencast without the use of another program. However
2. Recording entire desktop okay for PowerPoint, but a fixed region (640 wide by 480 high) will give a better image.
3. Set the screen recording to autopan, which will move the recording in response to mouse movements.
4. The video format is important: Consider using the .mov format, with a medium setting, when uploading to video sharing websites.
5. These tips may be a medicine for your sanity.
Note to self: It takes a good focus to keep size under 100 MB for the blog's requirements.
Argg! I am unable to upload a video, although I have followed protocol.
So, now I am trying Jing...the download isn't even going well. By the time I do get something published I will probably be pretty good at making videos!
My problem was java related. My latest Camtasia production worked!
It appears at first blush that Camtasia could be used to create video texts that could be "read" to students and then annotated in a way where students could see and hear how to refer back to a text to capture information for a reading objective (main idea, summary, cause and effect, etc.). This would save teachers from repeating lessons on a topic and would allow a great lesson to be created and saved for future use. It could then be embedded into a wikispace (maybe?) or blog so that students could refer to it as a tutorial or review, if needed. This application has a 30 day free trial, then purchasing option. The option to download a free key isn't available either. The tutorial is not so user friendly that I would pursue this any further. However, it does look like a great application.
I think I will go with the FreeScreencast, which doesn't require a download and is supposed to be simple. This too isn't proving to be easy. I downloaded the Recorder (no downloads?), then attempted the also necessary Windows Media Encoder. This would not download because of Windows Logo testing failure, claiming the encoder incompatible with Windows XP. Windows is incompatible with Windows. I think I'm drowning and will search for a lifeguard.
I am going to jot some notes I appreciate from reading Sue Waters' blog.
1. Camtasia lets you record and edit your screencast without the use of another program. However
2. Recording entire desktop okay for PowerPoint, but a fixed region (640 wide by 480 high) will give a better image.
3. Set the screen recording to autopan, which will move the recording in response to mouse movements.
4. The video format is important: Consider using the .mov format, with a medium setting, when uploading to video sharing websites.
5. These tips may be a medicine for your sanity.
Note to self: It takes a good focus to keep size under 100 MB for the blog's requirements.
Argg! I am unable to upload a video, although I have followed protocol.
So, now I am trying Jing...the download isn't even going well. By the time I do get something published I will probably be pretty good at making videos!
My problem was java related. My latest Camtasia production worked!
2 Thing #7 Sharing Videos
There are some very good sites out there that offer incredible resources for teachers to use. I like NeoK-12, where I think I could find something to use everyday in the classroom. Blip.tv and Google appear to offer video producers and publishers opportunities to do so without difficulty. Here is an sample video from NeoK-12:
With the advent of ActivBoards, the technology is very user friendly, saving teachers a lot of time and frustration. Remember the days when perusing the catalog for videos, then ordering the videos from the state Educational Region Service Center, waiting for them, then using them within the designated amount of time, replacing them in their canvas bag, and taking them to the front office for an educational region center representative to come and pick the videos up? Those days are definitely GONE!!
Here is another video. This one if from U S National Archives Channel:
Frank Capra and Dimitri Tiomkin had a part in this series of films from the Army's Office of the Chief Signal Officer.
Might I add that I really like the PBS site, as well?
Types of Polygons - Geometry Help
More math videos on Geometry at NeoK12.com
With the advent of ActivBoards, the technology is very user friendly, saving teachers a lot of time and frustration. Remember the days when perusing the catalog for videos, then ordering the videos from the state Educational Region Service Center, waiting for them, then using them within the designated amount of time, replacing them in their canvas bag, and taking them to the front office for an educational region center representative to come and pick the videos up? Those days are definitely GONE!!
Here is another video. This one if from U S National Archives Channel:
Frank Capra and Dimitri Tiomkin had a part in this series of films from the Army's Office of the Chief Signal Officer.
Might I add that I really like the PBS site, as well?
2Thing #6 ipod Apps
I'll be very lucky to scratch the surface on this topic. The topics will be narrowed down the elementary school: Use of an itouch by multiple students while in a library. Let's see there's Facebook Chat (this amends 2Thing#5), ibluetouch for mind mapping your thoughts while on the go, WeDict for a quick dictionary reference, Ifbyphone to collaborate amongst students, Stanza for digital books, as well as Classics and Bookshelf, Word of the Day, Wikipanion to get to the class's wikispace. Geopedia (finding places) and WorldCat (finding books in a nearby library) are two other freebie tools than can be used in elementary classrooms.
After looking at another section with actual game-like activities in language arts and math I want to conclude that I might just "play around in the sand castle" of the librarian on some of the apps she sees students benefiting from. After a trip to the Apple store to play around with an itouch and education apps, as well as talking with a store salesman, maybe I will have better sea legs.
Further investigation suggests that Stanza and Bookshelf will be helpful to students in that they can enhance literature that is in hard copy in the library. While working on a project in the library, students have greater resources of literature in their hands by using either Stanza or Bookshelf.
After looking at another section with actual game-like activities in language arts and math I want to conclude that I might just "play around in the sand castle" of the librarian on some of the apps she sees students benefiting from. After a trip to the Apple store to play around with an itouch and education apps, as well as talking with a store salesman, maybe I will have better sea legs.
Further investigation suggests that Stanza and Bookshelf will be helpful to students in that they can enhance literature that is in hard copy in the library. While working on a project in the library, students have greater resources of literature in their hands by using either Stanza or Bookshelf.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
2Thing #5 Microblogging
These were much easier experiences than YouTube. But, then the media is not as complicated. Random Comment: The book Bowling Alone could use new chapters in that now people are together and alone at the same time, rather than just isolated from the various communities around them. Facebook has a lot of potential, as does Twitter, for students to learn about the world of actual two-way+ world of communication. Facebook is a good place to share information and embed items of importance or interest. A Facebook account following a relevant news feed could be used as an item for students to respond to and discuss with others. This will be fun to try with elementary students. This gives teachers an opportunity to instruct students in the differences in elaborated text and short responses that must make a point. The more I look at Facebook the more I like it. I still have some more to learn, though.
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