Friday, October 30, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Web 2.0 tools #6 www.Totlol.com
Web 2.0 tools #6 www.Totlol.com
There are many applications for this tool in education. The first and most obvious is that Totlol could be used as teaching tool. Teachers can easily find a short video to add into a presentation for fun or to reinforce their lesson. A quick search on WWII brought me to a fun Bugs Bunny animation.
This site is also student friendly. Students could search this site for images that they would like to incorporate in their own presentations. Teachers and parents will be assured that students will not find inappropriate images on their search.
Web 2.0 tools #5 http://quizlet.com
Web 2.0 tools #5 http://quizlet.com
The information is now set up for students to begin. There are three categories familiarize, learn, and test. Familiarize is a basic note card study activity. Terms are visible and can be flipped back and forth to reinforce the information. The Learn activity asks students to type in the correct term. Quizlet responds with your answer correct or incorrect. Incorrect answers are accompanied by the correct answer. Once all of the terms have been displayed the students’ final statistics will show up including right and wrong answers. The student has an opportunity to redo the wrong answers. Test is the last category and is a final test of the terms. The test can be set up for True and False, multiple choice, write in, or matching answers. The test results are immediately viewed after the test and can also be printed. The information is color-coded green and red for correct and incorrect answers and a grade and percentage is calculated for the student. Two games are also included, scatter and space race. Scatter is a matching game incorporating speed. Space Race is a typing game that focuses on correctness and speed.
Web 2.0 Tool #4 www.widgetbox.com
This widget calculates your personal age, weight, height, and exercise pattern in order to determine your appropriate daily caloric intake. The calorie counter breaks the days eating into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and miscellaneous. Drop down menus provide a variety of foods to choose from to add to your diet. Each time you add food you have eaten the Calorie counter adds it up for you.
How can the Calorie Counter be used in education?
This tool would be a great addition to any health or physical education class. Counting calories promotes healthy eating habits. Factoring in body size along with age and exercise pattern encourages positive self-image and awareness for how the metabolism works. This is simple human physiology identifying human consumption and calorie burning. Counting calories can also be a cross curricular activity with mathematics. Adults might have fun using this widget for fun in a weight watchers program or biggest loser competition.
Karooba Endless Educational Trivia Quiz
I think this widget would be a fun addition to any class webpage. The questions are random so it would be hard to include this in a specific lesson theme. This quiz tool can be used as a fun activity to prepare for standardized testing. Today’s students have a lot of pressure to score well on standardized tests; practicing with this game could get students used to reading and answering questions quickly, answer questions on random topics, and build confidence for test taking.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Flickr
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Web 2.0 tools: peer comment
This page displays school calendar, directory, department information, faculty information, and more. Parents can access to see students' absentees, and grades. Each class shows assignments, announcements, resources posted on the class calendar and class section page. Teachers can post their lessons, assignments, videos and links and the space is unlimited. Because email account is students' name in a certain format (first.last name@school.org), teachers don't have to ask students' email address. This also has a discussion section for each group pages.
One is that school pays approximately $1 for a user.
Two, when I open attached documents, it is inconvenient because you have to open pop ups to retrieve the files. Also, I wish this provides students personal pages or blogs.
Overall, it is definitely worth for its price because it has almost anything a teacher needs and it is secure school online environment.
1 comments:
- Micheline said...
I often check out other school web sites. I think it is really important for school websites to be clear to navigate and overall user friendly. I often struggle with my own school's format and because of that don't participate in building the site as much as if I preferred the format. eChalk seems very simple. I really like the security of this tool but the cost is a bit much. Is the cost an annual fee or a one time cost per member?
- October 11, 2009 8:04 PM
Web 2.0 tools #3:http://voicethread.com
Voice thread: http://voicethread.com
Voicethread.com is a collaborative web 2.0 tool that allows many users to participate in a group discussion. The voice thread application provides five ways for users to participate: computer microphone, telephone, webcam, text, or audio files. This feature is exciting because participating individual can choose the form of communication that suits them best which supports the ideas of brain-based learning and multiple intelligence theories.
This program can be set up for use at the k-12 level, higher education, business, or personal use for a small fee. If you would like more information on this site there are some wonderful navigational tools that you can look at for free. The home page offers an informative tutorial along with access to examples.
A great way to include this into an art class would be to use this web tool as a form of art criticism. The teacher could provide artwork and then students comment from a prompt like, put yourself in the shoes of the people in the image, what would you say? Ask students to place themselves in the picture and tell about what is going on? As students participate they have the opportunity to zoom in and out of the image and use drawing tools over the picture to elaborate on their expression. Students could critique professional artwork and also the work of their peers.
This could be used as a storytelling application in any subject. Consider social studies. A teacher could upload a picture from a historic event or time period and ask students to comment. Voicethread could be used to review a book or to personify an object or animal. Students could expand on each other’s comments by using them as a prompt for writing a short story.
Collaborative learning is fun and interactive. Students learn from each other and have an opportunity for anonymous self-expression. This activity could take place during the school day or at home. Anyone with access to a computer can participate.
Web 2.0 tools #2:http://www.buildyourwildself.com/
This web 2.0 tools is hosted by the New York Zoos and Aquarium which includes: The Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and The New York Aquarium. The intended audience is children however I think any adult using this page would have fun at least one time. The purpose of this site is to promote literacy, provide information about animals, identify anatomy, as well as encouraging play and creativity.
The page opens and the user is prompted to make several selections to “build your wild self.” Get started by inserting your name on the template and selecting gender and skin tone. A blank body will appear and then the user must continue adding parts. Each time you make a selection the user gets to hear a funny noise, which usually identifies the animal the part came from. This feature can be turned down. Once your creature is complete press I am done and the learning begins. The user is now redirected to a page that provides information about each animal part that they have selected. The image can be saved, printed, and emailed.
This tool has many applications for the classroom. Literacy is a main goal in many school districts. This could be used as a reading activity that would then be followed with a writing assignment. Students could make up a short story about the creature they have become. The fun part is that the creature can be printed out for an illustration. Students could share their stories with the class to practice reading out load.
There are also applications with science. The web tool is sponsored by the NY zoo system and includes links to each zoo. This site can be used as an introduction to animal classification or a pre-zoo visit. When the student is building their creature they are learning anatomy by identifying different body parts and where they should be. A more creative focus for an art teacher would be to I am an first have students “build their wild self” on this site to warm up and practice and follow up by asking them to draw or sculpt a creature in a similar concept.
Web 2.0 tools #1: http://goanimate.com
http://goanimate.com
Goanimate.com is a free web tool that allows the user to produce simple animation. Animation is no longer only available to those that understand flash and computer programming language; anyone can animate with this tool. This web tool requires the user to sign up for a username and password. Once you become a member you can immediately begin to create. The site provides a variety of backgrounds, characters, and additional props so that the user will be able to create a unique and original animation. The user can also upload pictures and sounds from their own computer to make the cartoon even more personalized.
The main navigational bar for this web 2.0 tool is located on the bottom of the page with tabs that are straight forward. If you want to see tutorials and get helpful tips then you should click FAQS. There are also links to the privacy policy and legal notices. A secondary navigation is located at the top of the page with three links: channels, watch, and community. These three links connect to other people’s animations and are categorized by theme and popularity.
The educational uses for this web tool are endless. An animation can be used to personify characters, tell a story, give directions, or make up a skit. Each one of those activities requires the student to build a storyboard including a theme, characters, and script. Teachers could use this program to create original presentations for their class. Goanimate is successful in the classroom because most students and teachers love cartoons. Here is a link to a sample animation project that I made!
http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0eAZiUOhJRXg?utm_source=emailshare&uid=01Wh5cpWUj7Y
Once you get started with goanimate there are insentive programs. Members of goanimate have the opportunity to earn points that can be used to purchase extra characters, objects, scenes, effects, etc that are only available by points. You can earn points by producing more videos and by the number of time your video is viewed.
Assignment 4: Social Bookmarking
Cannata, C. (2009). Folksonomy, Tagging, and Taxonomy for Effective Learning:
Perspectives of Learning 2.0 in the XXI Century. International Journal of Emerging Technology in Learning, 4(2), 26-32. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi: 10.3991/ijet.v4i2.657
Research Practices. Knowledge Quest, 37(4), 42-47. http://search.ebscohost.com
Administration, 45(4), 52. http://search.ebscohost.com
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
BP 2: Anti-Teaching
The age of technology has shifted the way people process information. The Internet is now the greatest source of reference information including access to literature, lectures, and presentation from all around the world. The evolution of technology naturally contributes to the evolution of people. It is important to understand that the expectations and interests of today’s learners are a direct reflection of modern times. Those that promote progressive educational methods agree that current educational trends are behind the times with thefoundations of such practice based upon theories developed during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is over, and it is time for today’s educational planning to reflect the advancements of modern times.
The question is, what works for modern learners? Developmental research tells us that all students do not learn in the same way. It is important that modern instructional designs accommodate for a diverse student population. Theorists like Howard Gardner and Eric Jensen suggest that the learning process should include a layering of learning approaches for example: auditory learning, visual learning, and hands-on learning. One way to incorporate many different learning approaches is through virtual learning environments. The age of technology allows for fast access to many types of resources including knowledgeable individuals, associations, organization, and businesses, along with traditional research materials. Virtual learning environments allow for information to be presented and exchanges through videos, conference, literature, podcasts, blogs etc. These formats not only reflect a variety of learning abilities but also leave room for students to contribute rather than just being taught to. Students working in a virtual environment are presented with the tools to learn in a global environment rather than a single classroom with one teacher.
Open access to resources modernizes the role of the teacher. The teacher is no longer the primary source of information. Michael Wesch suggests that the role of the instructor may be shifting towards managing education rather than providing all the material.
Personal learning environments (PLE) are an example of the teacher managing education rather than conducting. A PLE is a learning process in which the teacher guides students through a self-discovery learning process by providing them with feedback, helping them organize into groups, and connecting them with experts, colleagues, and pertinent information. The PLE heavily relies on the use of Web 2.0 tools to organize information and contacts. Virtual learning environments and personal learning environments both require that the learner possess a working knowledge level of Web 2.0 tools. (Educause, 2009)
In my opinion I think that modern learners should become familiar and utilized Web 2.0 tools. The uses of these tools could be considered life skills and are required in many of today’s fields of work along with personal communication. Instructional design using virtual learning is a great way for students to synthesize and apply the information presented to them in more traditional instruction. I don’t think that technology should completely replace the role of a classroom teacher however I do think that teachers need to utilize technology as a major source in their curriculum planning. It is fair to consider that half of the learning process could be conducted through a virtual environment. Tactile learning and face-to-face engagement are still extremely important and contribute to both cognitive and social development. I think that most teachers would agree that they would be willing to incorporate web 2.0 tools and virtual learning environments into their curriculum if the proper equipment were available to them.
New schools should make technology equipment a priority. The ideal situation is a 1-1 student to computer facility however most schools systems do not have the budget to accommodate that ratio as well as the costs of updating technology at this rate. I think at the minimum plans for new schools should include a departmental computer lab with enough equipment for a classroom of students. A new school should be equipped with digital cameras, video cameras, and vocal recording software. The use of this equipment is becoming common practice in society and schools should provide and incorporate them as educational tools.
1 COMMENTS:
This seems easy enough. I think would greatly compliment a classroom webpage or blog because students could elaborate by adding images. Indeed cost effective rather than buying adobe suits or other purchased software.
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