I assigned my students a Civil War webquest to complete together last year and it was a collaborative nightmare. Students worked on their parts and used thumb drives to save their work. When they were done, the student groups put their presentations together. Unfortunately, some lost their drives before they could add what they had done and had to redo them. Making changes after their work was assembled was awful too. Google Docs may be the way out of this collaborative maze. The video below makes it look so easy and logical. I do have questions however. For example, students do not have email accounts. I believe you must have your own email account to edit presentations. If all you need is a username and password it may work. I am going to see if I can make it work. I will keep you posted on what happens.
Thanks to Jason Parrish I clicked around the Parent/Student Mock Election website. It is sponsored by the National Council for the Social Studies and just about every other heavy weight national education group. Activities and lesson plans for teachers abound. There is a BrainPop video explaining the election process and lesson plans for children K and up. There is a game that looks very cool where the kids get to run for office and launch a campaign called The Road to the Capital. You can enroll your class and parents or your entire school to participate in the Mock Election being held on October 30, 2008. Your entry must be recieved by early September so better get a jump on it.
Jason blogged about Wordle and I overheard two other techies talking about it. So I tried to find wordle.com and that was not the place. I had to go visit Jason’s blog myself. The site is wordle.net. So make sure you know there is a difference. I have made my classlist with it. Now I am hooked. I will tag this and put it in the “way cool” category.
Image attributed to http://wordle.net/. Images of Wordles are licensed .
I was pleased to attend the librarian and technology teachers inservice today at Craigmont Middle School. The day started with Bill Bailey , Education Services Manager of the Commercial Appeal. He explained all the wonderful features that will be available at the city’s newspaper as it is going Web 2.0. They have exciting changes that are taking place. I look forward to posting new and exciting things from them here on my blog. It only got better from there. Teachers got to choose from break out sessions that covered everything from Web 2.0 tools to Discovery Learning to expectations of tech teachers. The attendees seemed electrified, charged up, and ready to get their year started with educational technology. I presented with my tech camp friends, LeAnn Dowty and Laura Hanna Smith. We talked about what we were doing with what we learned at Tech Camp in June. Presenting allowed me to confirm what I will be teaching this school year. And I so enjoyed what LeAnn and Laura have done. They inspired all of us. I believe there is just as much knowledge gained from teaching as there is in being taught. So I can honestly say that no one left there more super charged than I did. I believe that the group of teachers at the inservice are going to take the world by storm.
I have posted a free audiobooks site before, but I would like to add this one. I found Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. As a parent I find that audiobooks help readers who enjoy a good story but get tired when reading.
I read this article by David Smith who is Director of ICT in London. His advise has helped me gain a greater understanding of what I want Web 2.0 tools to do for my students. A quote of his that resonantes with me are, “learning is inherently social, and any tools that can promote this will be the most effective. ” Yet what pulls me back is what David Smith has obviously recognized.
“My mode of conducting the class was, to a large extent, the limiting factor in how people engaged with the wiki. Yet I still wonder if, for our purposes, I was required to conduct those classes in that manner due to the subject matter and time restraints, especially because participants had little time outside of classroom hours to contribute or participate in any extra tasks? No answers, only questions … Perhaps time and access are important factors that cannot be overlooked.”
I know that having 5 classes back-to-back is an obvious constraint. Somethings got to give if positive change is to take place. In fact what we techies are fertilizing in our heads could overthrow long established educational thought. Click on the link below to read this article to find out more about the Revolution.
TrialI know this seems vain to have so many pictures of myself, but I used these just to try this out. as so easy to use I had to share it on my blog. Wow your parents and principal with this professional looking action filled presentation.
I have been thinking about this twitter.com. And just when I didn’t think I’d need nothing else I started to see the value in twitter. As I prepare to present to all my techie friends, I fast forward into the fast approaching school year. We will all be busy going about implementing all the neat things we learned and dreamt about over the refreshing summer. With “busy” being the operative word I think twitter could help us all collaborate without it being a chore to do so. With twitter your blogs are short and don’t have to have a lot of thought put into them. You can share what exciting thing you are implementing that day with little effort. I am thinking it can be done as you review your lesson plans the day or morning before your class begins. Twitter is a place where we can post short, sweet, to the point answers to, “What are you doing today?” However short and sweet those posts are they may be what helps me and many others believe that we can do all the things we have planned.
As a child I have fond memories of my grandfather taking me to the public library. I was amused by the assortment of adventures I found there. There was so much to read about I found the list of suggested books to read very helpful. In fact the lists provided a goal for me. I set out to read every book listed for my grade. I looked forward to making it to the next grade’s list. The Memphis Shelby County Libraries no longer publish the lists. In an effort to replace the empty cavern left by their extinction I found this site by the New York Public Library. Listed below are other sites that have lists also. A good book is a good book no matter what so several titles are listed on more than one list. I have used it as a guide this summer for my boys and I think you will find it helpful too.
