Collaborating...Teaching..& Learning

I started this digital toolbox as a part of my Masters program through Valley City State University.  EDUC 675, Teaching Using 21st Century Tools, has taught me a lot of valuable tools to implement into my classroom.

As I work my way through my Masters program, I want to continue to grow in my knowledge of the latest classroom instructional strategies and methods.  Technology advances daily and keeping up with all of the devices and Web 2.0 tools can be difficult. 

I want this blog to work as a continued education site, where we can work together to share ideas and new tools.  Let's work together to find engaging lessons, motivating topics, inspiring technology, and enriching learning environments.

I invite you to share your experiences with technology in your classrooms as I will continue to post mine!!  I am excited to hear all of the fun things that you do with your students!

Courtesy of inventionmachine.com

Twitter

Courtesy of Twitter.com

Twitter has been around for years, but I just recently opened an account.  I wanted to see what the hype was all about! 

I was very excited to see all of the individuals and groups that were using Twitter and posting tweets. 

I started by following my local news, Valley News Live and In-Forum.  I am following a wide variety of tweets including NBC Today, Cooking Light, Daily Healthy Tips, Education.com, edtech, and eLearning. 


10 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom

1) Tweet upcoming assignments, quiz, or test dates.

2)  Follow the local or national news.  Students can compare and contrast local news issues with national news issues.  Students can find following interesting issues and tweet their opinions.

3) Teacher can tweet questions and have students tweet their responses.

4) Play Word Games.  Post a daily challenge asking students to unscramble anagrams or play vocabulary word finds within tweets students are following. 

5) Connect with the community.  Have students partner with a business and participate in discussions, plan events, and assist with solving issues. 

6) Connect with families.  Keep parents up-to-date by posting upcoming assignments, events in the classroom, or events in the school.

7) Write a poem or story.  Students can write a poem or story, learning how to descriptively write in a concise way!  Only 160 characters are allowed!

8) Sync with a class blog.  Students are able to create their own blog and then provide tweets about it. 

9) Connect with classrooms around the world.  Students can collaborate and connect with students from different parts of the world to work on projects or have discussions about issues. 

10) Write reviews.  Have students follow a movie, song, book, ect. and write a review about it. 

These are only a few ideas that I am planning on incorporating into my classroom.  There are a lot of uses for Twitter in the classrooms.  Let me know what you are doing!!!

Useful Educational Apps

I have been very fortunate to have received a classroom set of iPods and an iPad to utilize in my classroom.  I have searched through the many apps available on iTunes to find ones that my students would like using and learn from as well.  A blog that I found extremely useful with 55 FREE Educational Apps is located at

http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/the-55-best-best-free-education-apps-for-ipad/

These are the apps that I use frequently in my classroom. 

 

Courtesy of itunes.apple.com

WHITEBOARD FREE
Raizlabs Corporation. (2010). Whiteboard free. (Version 1.5.1). [iPod application software].  Retrieved from http://www.itunes.apple.com

 One of the most valuable apps that I utilize in my classroom is the Whiteboard App.  This app is a free app and does not have a lot of updates to constantly manage.  I use this app in my classroom as a formative and diagnostic assessment tool.  When I am having classroom discussions, I have my students write their responses (usually rather short) and have them show me their answers.  This apps allows me to check my students’ understanding with the ease of not putting someone on the spot. This app can be used in any academic area.   The app is very simply designed.  It allows the user to write using a couple of different color markers.  Erasing answers is a breeze, just shake the device. 

 

QUIZLET

 Quizlet LLC. (2013). Quizlet. (Version 1.1.6). [iPod application software]. Retrieved from  http://www.itunes.apple.com

 

This app works with http://www.quizlet.com.  Quizlet is a flashcard app that allows students extra practice for studying vocabulary words or other concepts.  This app features several million premade flashcard sets.  Teachers or students can make their own flashcard lists.  Sets can be made right in the app or on quizlet.com and downloaded into the app.  In my classroom, I have my students study their root word lists.  Students create their own flashcards and study with a partner. When I am crunched for time, I create the flashcards and have my students download them onto the app.   Also, I have my students get into small groups.  Students have to choose a word from their word list and use it in a conversation with their small group to help build meaning.  Other teachers in my school use the app for spelling lists.  Students get into groups and quiz each other on their spelling words.

 

  WRITER’S HAT

Amos, Linda.  (2012). Writer’s hat. (Version 2.0). [iPod application software].  Retrieved  from http://www.itunes.apple.com

 This app costs $0.99.  Writer’s hat is an app that will help generate ideas for creative writing.  The app lets the students “spin” to generate a list of who, what, where, and when.  The app has a list of tons of ideas for students.  Students can also create and save their own lists.  The app also has a word box that provides a variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.  I use this app in my classrooms as a bell ringer activity three times a week.  Students grab an iPod, open the app, generate their list, and write a short story.  This app has been awesome for students who have difficulty coming up with ideas. 

 

 STICK PICK

Garwood, Buzz. (2013). Stick pick. (Version 1.04). [iPod application software].  Retrieved from http://www.itunes.apple.com

This app costs $2.99, but it is well worth it.  Stick pick is a great app that allows for diverse questions for all learners.  Stick pick allows the user to set up classes and put every student’s name on a stick.  The teacher can also set the level of question based on Bloom’s Taxonomy for each individual student.  This allows students at higher levels to be challenged with higher level questions as well as allow students with limited English proficiency to answer simple yes-or-no questions.  This is also a great tool for formative assessment.  The teacher can track students’ responses by rating their response with a rubric.  In my classroom, I use this tool in small groups.  The students take turns asking questions.  Observing my students use this tool, the groups are more engaged and on-task when questions are already generated for them. 

 

iTunes U

 Apple Inc. (2013). iTunes U. (Version 1.3.1).  [iPod application software].  Retrieved  from http://www.itunes.apple.com

 This app is free and a must have!  iTunes U have a variety of free courses and lessons ranging from elementary to college level.  iTunes U offers a free selection of audiobooks.  In my classroom, I have utilized this app to have my students view videos on figurative language, parts of speech, poetry, and audiobooks.  iTunes U offers a lot of great lessons for all courses.  This app allows the students to learn the same concepts taught by the teacher, but in a different format. 

Note: All images are courtesy from the works cited source through www.itunes.apple.com.

Educational Blogs

This is my first time being a blogger.  Since taking my graduate course, I have been exploring blogs more.  I have looked through a lot of blogs about education and using technology into the classroom.  There are a lot of great blogs out there!

Here are a few of the blogs that I subscribe to:

• 22 Ways to Use Twitter for Learning Based on Bloom's Taxomony http://www.teachthought.com/technology/22-ways-to-use-twitter-for-learning-based-on
• This blog contains a lot of great ways to invite Twitter into your classroom.  I do not have a Twitter account, but after subscribing to this blog, I have reconsidered.
• Using Technology to Motivate Readers                                                    http://motivatinglearnersed675-dahl.blogspot.com/
• This is another blog that I created, again for my graduate class.  This was my very first attempt at creating a blog.  The population of students that I work with are very unmotivated and hate reading.  I was trying to gather ideas for how to motivate the unmotivated!
• Teaching with Technology                                     http://teachingwithtechnologyed675.blogspot.com/
• This blog is one that my group for my graduate class and I created.  It has a lot of ideas about using technology in the classroom, from online resources to digital tools. 
• 51 Sources of Hundreds of Thousands of Free eBooks ttp://www.teachthought.com/featured/51-sources-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-free-ebooks/
• This blog contains a lot of different apps and online resources that have FREE eBooks! 
•  15 Free Learning Tools You’ve Probably Never Heard Of http://www.teachthought.com/trends/elearning/15-free-learning-tools-youve-probably-never-heard-of/
• This blog have some pretty neat online resources that are very similar to some other online resources, but allow for diversity.
• 10 Tools for Educational Research From edshelf              http://www.teachthought.com/edshelf/10-tools-for-educational-research-from-edshelf/
• Fabulous blog containing 10 different tools for researching.  There are a lot of kid-friendly search engines.

Multimedia Scrapbook

Using a Multimedia Scrapbook in the classroom is a new tool that I just recently explored.  Basically, a multimedia scrapbook is a collection of information about a topic using different medias such as: images, videos, sound clips, and Internet links.  Students can sift through a variety of Internet sites that focus on a topic.  They can copy information (maps, quotations, facts, images, sounds clips, videos, ect.) into different presentation software (reports, slide shows, collages, bulletin boards, or web pages).   

Directions for creating a MULTIMEDIA SCRAPBOOK:

1. Explore Internet websites (I would start by creating a list and topic for all student to explore).  Search for facts, quotes, images, video clips, sound clips, and examples that would reflect the topic.

2. When students find something of value that they would like to use in their scrapbook, make sure they look for copyright use.  Have the students learn to gain permission from the publisher, even if copyright allows access.

3. Copy or Save text or images that they are allowed to use into pdf files or word processing files. 

4. Once all the information that they want is collected, have the students start creating their Multimedia Scrapbook. Students can create their own webpage or just simply start with pulling all their pieces into a wiki, powerpoint, or other tools to begin. 

Here is an example of a person who created a personal multimedia scrapbook, using images, music, and text:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmdAi6sVf18

Hotlists

The Internet is a powerful tool.  How do you introduce websites to your students?  What are some strategies you use to help your students explore the Internet?

Here is a few tips that I use to create hotlists for students:

1. Provide students with a paper list of URLs.  Students can keep the paper list of URLs and refer to it when needed. 

2. Have the students set up bookmark sites.  There are many bookmark sites available for free for students to use.  Diigo, Symbaloo, Dropbox, Sharepoint are only a few. 

3. Students can access links from a personal or school webpage.  Sharepoint is one webpage that my district utilizes.  It is easy for students to use, and I can easily add items to my page. 

Giving students a hotlist of websites helps them learn the basics for searching and accessing the Internet.  There are a lot of useful websites out there, but also a lot of useless websites.  By providing students with a good list of appropriate websites, you are already teaching them to become aware of websites that they use!

Exploring Social Networks for Classroom Use

I explored a few social network sites that could be utilized in classrooms.  Here is a reflection that I wrote for my Teaching with 21st Century Tools class.  I looked at Facebook, YouTube, Wikispaces, and Skype.  I would love your thoughts and opinions for utilizing these social networks in the classroom or ways that you use them!

Social networking sites have been slowly making their way into classrooms across the world.  These sites have a lot to offer students and can enhance their learning environment, but knowing how to use and monitor the sites is imperative for maintaining safety and privacy for all students.  The social networking sites that I have experience using are Facebook, YouTube, and Skype.  As I explored more social networking sites this past week, I began thinking about benefits and drawbacks for using these sites within the educational environment. 

Courtesy of Facebook.com

            First of all, I believe that some of the social networking sites should be kept for personal use and not implemented into the classroom.  Facebook is one of these sites.  Facebook is a great site to keep in touch with friends and family.  Most students have Facebook accounts and the information (i.e., images, posts) that put on their pages is not always appropriate.  It would be very difficult monitoring this type of social networking site and trying to get the students of thinking of this site as an educational tool, rather than a social tool.  Therefore, I believe that Facebook should be kept as a personal, social tool, rather than implementing the site into the classroom. 

 Courtesy of YouTube.com

            Next, YouTube has many benefits and drawbacks when using it in the classroom.  I really enjoy using YouTube to share educational lessons with my students.  I have even made screencast-o-matic lessons for my students to access from YouTube.  The site has a lot of educational material that students are able to access and view for additional enrichment of the material that they have learned.  I have had my students make their own videos and upload them to YouTube as well.  However, YouTube also has a lot of inappropriate videos that students do not need to be viewing.  For this reason, my school district set up an Internet filter that will not allow students to access YouTube.  YouTube can be an excellent tool for students and teachers to access in the classroom.  Before introducing this site into the classroom, rules and perimeters need to be established, so that students are viewing and commenting on safe, educational videos.

Courtesy of wikispaces.com

            Also, Wikispaces is another social networking site that I have recently explored more closely.  I find wikispaces to be an excellent site for students to collaborate with each other.  Students will learn a lot of valuable academic skills as well as citizenship skills necessary for functioning appropriately in today’s society.  Wikispaces is a secure site, which will keep the students safe and protected.  Students can access additional resources to enhance their learning while collaborating with their classmates.  This is one tool that I am exploring more, so that I will be able to incorporate it into my classroom.

Courtesy of Skype.com
            Finally, Skype is a wonderful tool that I should be using more in my classroom.  I just started using Skype a few months again.  I overheard other teachers talking about how they were having students in their middle school classes Skype students in elementary classes.  The middle school students were reading to the elementary schools.  I thought this was a fabulous idea for using this tool.  I began pondering the idea of having pen pals with students in other districts.  Students would be able to Skype their pen pals.  This would be a great tool for pen pals in foreign language classes as well.  Students would be able to Skype students in other countries, as long as the time zone aligned well with school hours.  I never really explored the benefits of using Skype in the classroom, but after discussing other ways that my colleagues were using the site, I began to think of ideas for using it in the class.

            Overall, there are a variety of educational uses for social networking sites in the classroom.  Utilizing these different tools in the classroom will keep students actively engaged in their learning while learning important 21^st century skills.  The benefits for most of the sites outweigh the drawbacks.  Facebook is one site that I do not think should be implemented into the classrooms at this time.  Wikispaces, Skype, and YouTube are all sites that have amazing educational benefits.  Each site has unique tools that will enhance student learning while creating a 21^st century learning environment.  As I continue my professional development, I will be educating myself on all of the tools these sites have to offer, so that I can effectively implement them into my classroom.