Final Project
Inference using Voicethread.
ESL
Just another Edublogs.org weblogThing 22
I think one of the biggest things students should know is that they need to think about the things they write online because what they write can be viewed and copied by almost anyone. I think this ties in with students not giving out too much information online also. I think students have this misconception that only people they know will read or want to read what they write. However, so many things that people write online can be found by others and brought up later on. I think Digital Citizenship should be taught by every teacher who incorporates technology in the classroom and has students online doing assignments or projects. I think so many teachers (like me) assume that students know a lot of this information already or their parents have told them about these cautions but that is too big of an assumption to make. I think, in relation to this topic, too much information is better than too little. Also, if students’ parents have cautioned them, this would be a good reinforcement in the classroom and also a good discussion point.
There are so many great workshops on the benefits of technology but I do think that teachers need to be more informed of the pitfalls as well so that we can better prepare/inform our students. I think that workshops should be developed for both parents and teachers. I think that parents don’t always know what their students are doing online so cautioning them or informing them of what to cautious of would be great. I think this information is vital for parents because we want them to know the pitfalls but also be aware of the positive things as well so they don’t want to get rid of technology altogether.
I chose this video because there have been so many cases of adolescents putting inappropriate material online or sending it to their friends thinking it is safe and no one else will see it… They need more information.
My score was a 10 on the digital citizenship quiz. Maybe I need a little more work…
Thing 21
I had actually created a Ning site before starting this school year but I never got it going because I wasn’t sure if it was going to be allowed since it was a social network. So I really liked exploring and finding out more information and educational justification for using Ning and other social networking sites for students.
I did search in the forums although I found this to be a bit overwhelming. There were so many topics and I didn’t see much organization… until I saw there was a table of contents on the side. I clicked on the ESL link and I found a discussion on how to grade/monitor students’ blogs. I did find this helpful because I have been wondering/asking myself questions about this.
I like the idea of using social networks in the summer for keeping students engaged and interacting over the summer.
I actually diigoed a blog from this site (Steve Hargadan) and I added his RSS feed because I liked the information he had about using technology in the k-12 classroom.
Thing 7c
I chose this article from the News Leader because I went to college in Springfield, MO and this is the newspaper from that city. In this article, it focused on how the governor of Missouri is allocating $12 million dollars to job training programs as a way to boost the economy and give Missourians useful skills to use in the jo place. I have always thought that there should be more job training programs even beginning in high school to give people the skills they need to succeed. I find the value in content and academic classes but I think technical skills are invaluable. I wish I knew other skills but I never got the chance to take a wood shop or other technical classes. I hope this program will catch on.
Thing 20
Google docs is great! I saw this task and I was a little apprehensive about it because it looked like a time consuming task. However, I think this has been one of the most beneficial tasks in this course so far because I really learned a lot about Google docs and I am already brainstorming all of the ways I can use it in the future! I’ve had documents shared with me before in google docs but I never really knew how to use this function. Now I do! I made a graphic organizer for the four components of a Personal Narrative. The example that I made is completely usable for class. I can make a template and then students can go in and edit each part of the graphic organizer with their own examples! I also made an end-of-the-semester evaluation that my students could take a few minutes to fill out and I can get their feedback right away. Google docs even lets you select how you want to see the responses. I also uploaded pdf files for student journals that we will be using in the future for class reading books. It may not be a great function but I can use google docs for storing documents and having it accessible for students to go to so they could print or view items we will be using in class. I think a good collaborative function for google docs would be if students were working together to complete a short paper or assignment. They could work on the paper at home and see the revisions each person is making. I will definitely be using google docs in the future!
Thing 19
I’m sure like lots of teachers (and the rest of the human population) I have done searching on youtube before and spent hours trying to find something decent. I actually did this at the beginning of the year when I got a newcomer who didn’t know much English. I did youtube searches for English vocabulary, numbers, clothes, etc. I did find short clips made for preschool or kindergarten children to learn basic vocabulary. I did download these clips although I didn’t use them very much for this student. There are so many clips to look at on youtube that it can be overwhelming filtering through them all. I wanted to find some funny clips for learning English to possibly share with more advanced students (probably high school or adults). I found this clip and thought it was hilarious Learn English
I know there are many applications for using youtube for professional development. When I had looked at possibly utilizing Second Life as a teaching tool, I found lots of how to videos on youtube which were really beneficial because I could see and hear what the person was doing or how they were using the application (kind of like jing).
For ELL students, there are so many applications for utilizing videos in the classroom. Since reading texts can be a barrier, students can watch and respond to videos as a way to express what they learned or as a way to learn as well. There are many educational clips or thought provoking clips that can be used to elicit conversation or thoughts from students instead of having them read passages.
Thing 18
I was actually a bit nervous about creating my own podcast although I have played around with Garage Band before. However, I looked at Nick Filipowski’s directions and dove right in. The whole process of beginning it was much simpler than what I planned. I wrote out what I wanted to say which really helped me focus my thoughts. The hard part was recording my voice because I don’t like how I sound on recordings to begin with and I also had a cold which didn’t help the situation. However, after I painfully recorded my voice, I was even able to figure out how to cut out the dead spot that was there at the beginning of my podcast.
Thing 17
I have been using iTunes to download and listen to podcasts for about two years now. I love finding new podcasts to try out. I have found that I have to listen to one or two shows of a podcast series before I know if I will subscribe to it or not. Some podcasts sound great but then after I subscribe to them, the speaker is very monotone or the stories drag on and it doesn’t keep my attention. For my personal use, I listen to a lot of news podcasts including Newsweek On Air, Inside Europe (Deutsch Welle), NPR (lots of these), NOW on PBS, and a few more. The educational/professional ones include ESL Teacher Talk which is a podcast created by an ESL teacher in Korea but I like the format of this podcast and he always has a new game at the end that I like to try out.There is also Teacher Cast which is an Online Newshour podcast about different news related to teaching. I have also subscribed to SMARTboard lesson podcasts and a few other technology ones but I have to be sitting at my computer listening to these so that I can try out what they are talking about. I know that I can have a short attention span so I’m always looking for shorter podcasts with quality information related to teaching packed into them. I’m a little nervous about making my own podcast but we’ll see how this goes!
Thing 7b
I read a NY Times article about the upcoming election in Honduras and what the outcome might hold for the country and for the U.S. The United States has often been a negotiator for power when it comes to impoverished countries on the brink of falling into the wrong hands. This is especially the case with Honduras. The presidential election is set for Sunday but fliers have been found warning Hondurans not to vote. This could put a new twist for President Obama’s international agenda.
To be honest, I did have a backload of articles on my Google Reader so it was nice that I could get the most recent articles first instead of having to go through all of the older ones. Do I need to go through and delete the older posts or can I just scroll through all of the older articles and they will disappear?
Thing 16
I went to the 30boxes website and I LOVE this website! I am horrible at dates so this site is great for me. It’s fantastic because you can sync it to your facebook page. So all of my friends that have birthdays listed on facebook will show up on my 30boxes page now. You can also set it up so that it will sent reminders to your email too. I think this is a great personal application but I don’t know if it would have a classroom application though besides syncing the school calendar to your account so that you can stay updated on school activities as well. So this would make ME more productive I suppose.
I also created an account at glogster which I’m really excited about exploring some more. It looked like this could be a great tool for doing book reports or other posters. When I was playing around with it, I had a little trouble trying to upload pictures from my computer but I just need to play around with it a little more to figure it out. This is definitely a site that can have great classroom applications. I’m doing a book report with my students before Christmas but I don’t know if I’ll have time to work out the kinks before then. However, I definitely want to use this next semester for class book reports!
I have used skype now for almost two years and I love it! When I was teaching in Poland, I used it everyday for talking to my parents and friends back home. Sometimes my internet connection wasn’t strong enough so I would use the chat feature instead of the video feature. I have also used it since coming back to the U.S. to talk to my former Polish students. They can send me links via skype as well which is quick and easy.
