BP3_2009102_web2.0_tools_Links

One web 2.0 tool that I am exploring and finding useful is the "box of links". Having had so many bits of new information come my way during these past few months of the Media, Design and Technology Course, I have often found myself on overload when trying to search and retrieve information. In the case of the box of links, I have already attached some of my classmates’ AR blog sites; so all I have to do is go to my iGoogle AR (Action Research) page, and I can open a link without having to look up the URL on a spreadsheet in one of my files on the desktop. This is a great feature, and it keeps my links organized.

I can add more boxes of links by category, if I choose to do so on any page that I set up in my iGoogle account. The AR page also has the Del.icio.us bookmarks box, which provides additional links to the web. These links are saved as my favorites. They are sites that I would have found while searching the web. If I were to find a site that is interesting and I would like to visit more often, I could save the link in my del.icio.us bookmarks and access it whenever I go to iGoogle. Even if I am on another person’s computer, the bookmarks are still available to me when I go into my iGoogle account.

With countless websites, searching the World Wide Web is mind-boggling. Being able to save and sort links that are relevant to one’s life is made a lot easier with the web 2.0 linking tools. Being able to organize a wealth of art resources for class lessons or art history and cultural facts would be very beneficial. Some features of the del.icio.us site that I have not yet configured include having the ability to…”Share favorites with friends, family, and colleagues” and “Discover new things with less work. Other del.icio.us users may have already found and posted exactly what you are looking for” ( Schrum, p. 199).

Interestingly, as a newbie to “searching the web” and “organizing links “ there is another side of the coin that I hadn’t considered. It’s “link baiting”! It may sound a bit negative, but it is a term used to describe how sites try to catch the attention of readers, so readers will link to them. Since there are so many sites out there, link baiting is a way to get your site to stand out. Rob Sullivan lays out the types of baiting that are available to help sites gain readership….”They are: News, Contrary, Attack, Resource and Humor”(2006). The article provides descriptions and examples of these baiting categories as advice for those trying to gain a broader audience. Though Sullivan wrote the article in 2006 the responses to the article are as current as August of 2009.

Resources:

Schrum, L. & SOlomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Wasington D.C.:ISTE.

Sullivan, R. (2006). Search Engine Journal (SEJ): Live Baiting & Effective Link Building. Retrieved October, 2009 from:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-baiting-effective-link-building/2797/

The image is from Power Point Clip art and adjusted by Beckie Lamborn October 2009.

BP1_2009101_iGoogleScreenShots

The following are screen shots from my iGoogle account for my ETC course at FullSail, October, 2009.

My What's Going On (WGO) page:

My Action Research (AR) page:

My ETC (Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture) page:

Classmate's blog post on web tools, and my response:

BP3_20091004_RSSFeeds

Though it is slightly embarrassing to admit, I am entirely new to the world of creating and following blogs. The first set of assignments for the FSO ETC course on creating and setting up the iGoogle site as well as the Blogger and Google Reader has caused a huge learning curve on my part. Still, the process of searching and adding RSS feeds to the Google Reader has brought interesting insight to the use of these feeds.

Before knowing about RSS feeds and how they worked, I couldn't picture how they would be useful to me. In just a fews additions to my subscription list, I have already discovered how incredibly useful these blogs will be to my work at FSO and the improving my teaching methods in general.

I chose the initial 11 feeds that I have added to my Reader for the purpose gaining information that I will hopefully use in the classroom. For example, several of the feeds that I discovered came for the website for the French newspaper LeFigaro. These blogs involve a variety of subjects in French including news and perspectives on French culture, cinema, foreign relations, fashion, and more. All of these will help to inform my teaching on current events and information about the French speaking world and hopefully cause students to become more excited about the real life application of the French language as I share this information with them.

Also, these blog posts and links will help me, most simply, to continue to keep up with my French speaking skills. One of the challenges of teaching a foreign language when it is your second language it finding the ability to use and practice your own communication skills. Especially with French in the US, it is difficult to find many people with whom you can communicate in French or places in which you are immersed in the French language. The feeds that I have chosen for my reader, in ways, replicate the immersion experience through offering several opportunities to see French, read French, and if desired, respond to posts using French.

Some of the blogs also include tips geared toward helping teachers such as French for Fun and The Drama Teacher which offer perspectives for teachers of those subjects on how to improve the time with students in the classroom. I would hope that being able to access this information in a more timely and manageable fashion through Google Reader will render obsolete the issue of searching for information each time I create a new lesson plan.

The next weeks will hopefully bring more insight into the effectiveness of the easy accessible information that the Google Readers will provide and its impact on my work at FSO and my teaching in general.

Posted by Kim Davis

at 10:22 AM

My Response:

Tres bien Kim! Your use of Google Reader has inspired me to search feeds that will enhance my teaching in the elementary art room where I find myself absorbed in the lives of young, curious, and creative children. Magnifique!!!

BP3_2009102_web 2.0_tools_Open-Source_iGoogleDocs

As an elementary teacher I may not be able to use iGoogle with my students, but iGoogle is a wonderful web 2.0 tool that could help me as a teacher to organize and pull together ideas. The iGoogle page is a platform that allows me as a teacher to put things that interest me and things that apply to my teaching all in one location. After I set up a free account on the Google site, I am given a free Gmail account, so I can receive or send emails.

The iGoogle account can be accessed and set up through my Google account. This iGoogle account gives me opportunities to create pages that I title according to my personal needs. For the FSO program I have designated more that four pages with page names that can be opened to reveal related information. The page that I am most comfortable navigating during this early stage of getting my feet wet with web 2.0 tools is the Google Docs page. When Google docs page is opened up I can click on documents that have been created by my teammates and me at FullSail. The idea that documents can be created online by a group of people is new and exciting, and having been assigned projects has further allowed me to understand the potential of this collaborative tool. To this point I did not invite teammates to the documents in my file, I was just a collaborator. I think I could use this iGoogle doc tool with fellow teachers, if we were going to create a lesson plan from our homes during our after school hours, free time at school, or at our convenience. I would have to help my teachers set up iGoogle accounts, and I would then have to create a document and invite them to work with me on lessons or other collaborative writings.

Communications through Internet are taking new directions as people are not only receiving information, but now they are responding and creating the information to share with others. According to Dan Woods, a chief technology officer, this “open-source” communication where software tools are provided for people to collaborate and create on the Internet is available due to…“a community of people who are dedicated to working together in a highly collaborative and evolutionary way” (Schrum, p. 50). Programmers are providing source codes “for the sheer enjoyment of seeing their creation used” (p. 13).

Resources:

Schrum, L. & Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Washington D. C.: ISTE.

Image is free power point clipart adjusted by Beckie Lamborn (2009)

BP2_2009101_Anti-Teaching_Improving-Today's-Education

What is meaningful to children, and what makes a child ask questions?

These are some questions I would push a teacher to answer when setting up a teaching environment for students of the 21^st century.

Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Kansas, brings out those questions in his students by setting a learning environment where both he and the students are on a quest to discover and learn. They tackle questions that he doesn’t have the answers for, but he is willing to facilitate and join the students on their quest to find answers and meaning. He doesn’t call himself a teacher, but an “anti-teacher”. This is because he feels the traditional teaching is set up to concentrate more on the grade than the process of exploring and understanding a topic. (2008)

Following the ideas of Howard Gardner and Eric Jensen who talk about multiple learning styles and how the brain receives information, Wesch taps into his students’ various learning styles with his methods.

Welsch lays out thought provoking facts, and sets it up so students are curious to find connections with their personal world, the world around them.

In 2007 Wesch and his students produced a YouTube video called, “A Vision of Students Today”. The video targeted the absurdities and ineffectiveness of today’s teaching environments. The traditional lecture hall was featured and students sat passively without a voice, holding only note-cards stating the negatives of their learning environment.

If teachers can provoke questions and then get students to respond in a multitude of activities and ways that bring meaning and understanding to those participants, in my mind that is what a learning environment of today should look like.

In my opinion challenge based learning, problem based learning, simulations, social networking and direct instruction methods that invoke reflection, analysis and critiques, are features that would benefit today’s students. Adding music, creative writing, and the arts would be components of projects that would engage learners.

Collaborative Web documents, social networking sites as well as specific tools like Garageband, iMovie, and other presentation applications could all be present in a 21^st century learning environment catering to the multiple learning styles of today’s students.

Teachers would be offered professional development opportunities. Teachers could learn the tools needed to set up course management systems as a way to communicate with students beyond the classroom and bring together student activities using the Internet.

Another aspect of a a 21^st century teaching environment would have to include an ethics and humanities piece, where students have opportunities to develop empathy and understanding for others. Whether building on the project-based projects, or social networking opportunities, or community service projects, a 21^st century learning environment would also include this aspect of teaching.

References.

Wesch, M. (2008). Education Canada: Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of

Significance. Retrieved October, 2009 from:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6358393/AntiTeaching-Confronting-the-Crisis-of-Significance

Wesch, M. (2007). Encyclopedia Britannica Blog: YouTube video: A Vision of Students

Today. (And What Teachers Must Do). Retrieved October, 2009 from:

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/a-vision-of-students-today-what-teachers-must-do/

BP1_2009101_Educational-Uses-Blogs

Education is changing each day, as information is being distributed more easily through technology. In 2006 Candace Lombardi reported that a new blog was being born every half second. Whether a news report by a professional or a personal report by individuals, blogs are being used more and more as a means to communicate information. While reading Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools, it is clear with new technology our understanding of education has shifted. Effective education that caters to the current generation of 21^st century students takes place in a more communal and participatory setting or learning environment. (2007).

The traditional measure of intelligence, which centered on memory and regurgitation of facts has shifted and is also moving toward the new world of technology. Having easy access, ability, and tools to find and apply information is an area that has grown with technology. Also, Bloom’s Taxonomy, which looked at components of teaching to higher order thinking, has been revised to look more heavily at creative approaches to teaching. The focus is to stimulate students in this technological world to learn by building on prior knowledge, find meaning, evaluate, make judgments, and apply knowledge (p35-36).

The idea of open source tools where students can write documents or do research together is exciting. Reading about the Clip Bandits (p45) who produced music online without even meeting each other just goes to show how technology can be used in collaborative and new ways. Having a platform to put unimaginable numbers of brains together could engage wonderful products, and give a new meaning to the idea of brainstorming. Though Wikipedia does get a bad wrap for not being a verifiable source since it is open to being edited by anyone, the idea of such a forum for shared knowledge is exciting and takes “radical trust”. That is a word I look at optimistically, while some may see it differently.

Whether using a blog or using an audio tool such as a Garageband, technology is an exciting stimulus that captures the interest of today’s students enhancing their ability to reflect and gain meaning in their learning.

Ron Clark, a teacher in Atlanta, has started an Academy that feeds on the excitement the students bring to school. The academy is teaching to the modern student that loves his or her iPod, cell phone, and texting. Clark has tapped into that love inspiring students to learn with that same passion. Ron Clark brings music, art and an energetic atmosphere, and his school even became nationally recognized as sixth and seventh graders created a “you can vote” song on utube. Teachers come from across the country to observe and learn new ways to engage these modern students at the Ron Clark Academy, and for more info check out the following links. http://showhype.com/video/full_interview_with_ron_clark_kids_you_can_vote/

http://www.limaohio.com/articles/lima-40418-area-style.html

references:

Schrum, L. and Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New School.

Washington D.C.: ISTE.

Lombardi, C. (2007). CNet News: There's a Blog Born Every Half Second.

Retrieved October 2, 2009 from: (http://news.cnet.com/2100-1025_3-6102935.html)

starting a blog from my igoogle page

It is October 1, and tomorrow I go to the museum with my prefirst class to see "Parts of Art" that our young students can relate to.