BP18_20091101_Using_Blogs_in_Education

I had never blogged before this class. I never had given blogging a second thought to be more specific. I never guessed blogging could have a place in education.

My first thought of using blogs in education would be for the benefit of the educators. This can be a huge forum for teachers to ask questions, give information, received information, and so without really using any extra time from their day. Blogging can be helpful because you can visit the blog when it is convenient to you and you can receive a response or comment when it’s convenient to the other party. No more trying to coordinate schedules.

Blogs can also be used a forum for students. The students can communicate with each other about lessons and they can communicate with their teacher asking any questions that they may need for class (or homework).

Blogs can be a way for students to communicate who live far apart. If you are learning about a marine lesson in Dakota, you can blog with students in California or the Caribbean to get more information directly. A great learning experience because it helps to teach students how to communicate and how to gather information.

I think blogging would be a great opportunity for ELL students to practice their English. Blogs give the opportunity to learn grammar, spelling, and access to their new language in a visual manner.

Blogging can be a great tool in the classroom and can be an asset in the learning enviroment.

BP17_20091103_Web_2.0_Commercial_Video_Prezi.com

BP16_20091103_Web_Tool_Blog_Post_Toondoo.com

Political cartoons have such a strong place in history that it is rare that my lessons do not have one tucked in somewhere. I like to incorporate analyzing, current events, comparing, and drawing political cartoons for my students in most of the sections that we learn about.

With that, I set out to locate a web tool that could help my students create a cartoon in class. Often, students complain about not being able to draw well and this is a solution to that. I wont hear anyone complaining that their product wont come out well because they only know how to draw stick figures…

I happened across a great web 2.0 tool named Toondoo.com. This is a free interactive web tool that has so many options; my students will enjoy creating their next political cartoons, (enjoy even more than I am sure they do now).

Once you create a user domain, you are able to log in and create straight away. The site makes it very easy to start your comic. There is a ‘people’ category that allows you to choose the characters that you would like to have star in your comic. You may choose from animals that are humanized, famous faces, headshots, and even stick figures. From there, you may choose from backgrounds, cityscapes, colors, special effects, and themes.

The students will enjoy being creative with this web tool and its ease of use. There is another section to Toondoo.com, it is called toondoospaces. I have not had the opportunity to explore that section because there seems to be a cost involved. Toondoospaces caught my attention because this lists information on how to utilize the site in the classroom.

Toondoospaces boasts that it is the best way to bring comics into the classroom to engage students. It also lists that there are safe and secure clip art available through this section. There is even a section for special education clipart; and my favorite, user activity monitoring. I always need that handle on what the kids are doing when I am helping someone on the other side f the room…

I think that I may have to break the budget and look into the cost of toodoospaces.

toondoo.com (2007). The cartoon strip creator. Retrieved on November 11, 2009 fromwww.toondoo.com/Home.do?param=log&msg=1

BP15_20091103_Peer_Blog_Review_3_w_Roxy_Animoto

Animoto

Presentation created by © Roxanne Santiago

Animoto is a web 2.0 tool that automatically generates professionally produced videos with motion design. The videos that are created are unique each time. No two videos are alike. The user selects what photos, videos and soundtrack they want to use and Animoto does the rest.


This web application can be useful for back-to-school nights. I can have each computer in my art room display different works of art for each grade level so parents can see what their child will be creating in that grade level. I can also use this presentation for individual student portfolios. Students can take photos or scan in their artwork to create their own Animoto presentation to share with family and friends at the end of the year. Examples of art work can be shared with other art teachers in the district or posted on my blog to share with others around the world. I can even take video clips of students creating their works of art and import it along with the photos to make a more appealing video piece.


Once your video has been created, there are more options available. You can re-edit your video to get a totally different effect by a click of a button, download it, or send it as a greeting card or receive the embedded code to place the video on a blog, site, or social network.


When you sign-up for a free account, you have access to Animoto Shorts. These videos are 30-seconds in length. You have unlimited access to produce, remix, and share as many videos as you'd like. With full-length videos you can do the same but this allows the videos to be as long as a whole song and are downloadable.

Right now Animoto is offering all educators a classroom code for an All-Access pass for producing videos for assignments and presentations at your school. Here is the website to sign-up, http://animoto.com/education/getting_started

Posted by Roxy at 10:34 PM
1 comments:

Toni McBride said...
Hello Roxy-I was curious to see this site based on your blog, so I had a visit. I agree it is a nice tool to have access to but I was a little disappointed that it was not a free site.

True you are allowed some access at no charge but it seems to be just a teaser. I want more but I am being a little budget conscience these days and really like free sites.

I have created a mini-video and love how you can create from their choices or from your own video. I love too the music add on option-a great effect. I am sold on the sight.

I will continue to lay and learn ways I can use this site in my lessons. I know my students will enjoy creating with this site also. Thanks or the information again.
November 13, 2009 11:13 PM

BP14_20091103_Peer_Blog_Review_2_w_Romel_Survey_Monkey

Sunday, November 8, 2009
BP8_20091108_Web 2.0: Survey Monkey

Getting to know 20+ students each school year is a challenge. I try to find out something about each one as the school year goes along. Some things I find out late in the school year that would be helpful to know at the beginning of the year. There are lots of getting to know you games and ice breakers that help get the kids out of their shells a little bit at the beginning of the year but the knowledge of who the kids really are is still a mystery. I was thinking of how I could get to know more info about the kids without having to take up a large amount of class time to do it and I thought that a survey would be a good way to find out about the kids.
I created a survey in my last course and thought that it could be a beneficial tool to use to get to know my students more quickly at the beginning of the year. The Web 2.0 tool I liked was Survey Monkey. It allows you to create a survey very easily and quickly. You can create your own questions, design your own rating system and provide a space for comments as often as you would like throughout the survey.
My idea:
My plan is to begin thinking of things that I would like to know about my students early in the school year so that I am better able to address their needs. I would include things like who they live with, how much they like school, etc. I would then take a look at the information I’ve gathered and use it as a way to connect with the kids early in the school year.
Future idea:
I think creating a survey for my parents to complete may help me create a better home/school connection. If I designed a survey asking parents what they expect for the school year, how they feel about school, etc I can better connect with the parents of my students and in turn hopefully create a better working relationship with the families.
Posted by Romel at 5:16 PM

Toni McBride said...
Romel: How perfect is your timing! I have been planning to have my students complete a survey in class in reference to my AR.

The delay is because I thought that I needed to create, type, and copy the survey and I have not really had the time for that. My goal is to complete a survey this weekend and vola-here is your review of Survey Monkey.

I have played around on the sight because of your blog post and it fits for me. You are correct in your description of how user friendly the sight is. I will now be using this tool to create the survey I need now and I also will be borrowing your idea about using a survey as a getting to know the students tool. Thanks for the very useful info.

November 13, 2009 10:36 PM

BP13_20091103_Peer_Blog_Review_1_w_Christina_Delicious

sunday, november 8, 2009

BP7_20091108_Social_Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking: Embracing Web2.0 in the Classroom

As educators some of us already use Bookmarks or Favorites in our computers to save Web sites that we frequently use. However, Social Bookmarking is about collecting and storing bookmarks online, tagging them with keywords so they become searchable and shareable with others. Today there are so many social bookmarking sites, but the most popular is Del.icio.us.

Del.icio.us, like all social bookmarking tools, can be used for many different purposes and in many different ways. I’ve been using Del.icio.us for quite a while now in my school. I have a delicious account for my school where my students can find different links to websites according to subject, grade level, and also games and activities that go with the curriculum. In using this application in the classroom I have found it to be useful in many ways. It can show students resources for any project they are working on. It allows them to share not only the resources, but also allows them to leave a note to one another about what they found helpful from that resource. It can give the students direction when searching for information. It also gives teachers the ability to share sites that are not only age appropriate but are approved for finding specific information.

I also use this social bookmarking tool to build a growing list, which is not only produced by me but, also by my students and other teachers in the building. I believe that developing self-organizational skills in today’s world of overwhelming technology information is key to enhance your professional and personal learning practice.

References

EDUCASE Learning Initiative, 7 things you should know about….. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING.
Retrieved November 6, 2009 from
http://educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf.

Education World, Sites to See: Social Bookmarking.
Retrieved November 6, 2009 from
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites080.shtml

BlogSpot Fequently Asked Questions, Social Bookmarking in Education.
Retrieved November 6, 2009 from
http://frequanq.blogspot.com/2005/02/social-bookmarking-in-education.html

Posted by CNavarrete at 9:45 PM
1 comments:

Toni McBride said...
Christina-I like how you listed the uses for a social bookmarking site for school use. I have not used something like this before and although I like the idea of bookmarking and sharing, I was not exactly sure if / how i would use it for my classroom.

Thanks to you however, I am reminded of how social bookmarking can help organize my students when working on projects and give them a starting starting point with approved sites.

I have not learned all of the tools available on Delicious but like the idea that the students can leave messages for each other. I like the idea of community learning here.

Thank you for adding to my limited list of uses for social bookmarking in my classroom. I have a research project scheduled in the near future for my class and I am in the process of organizing some bookmarks on Delicious to help move my students forward on their lesson.
November 14, 2009 1:24 AM

BP12_20091102_Quizlet_web_2.0_tool_#3

Quizlet.com is a great web 2.0 tool for learning vocabulary. This lesson creator is not limited to language arts and can be structured to accommodate any discipline that requires new words to be learned.

As a history teacher, there are always new terms that the students need to learn. Using quizlet.com will help students master the terms at his or her own pace. The site is an interactive that helps with studying and testing.

With quizlet, you are able to create your own flashcard sets. Giving the option of allowing others to view flashcards, which is great for classroom use. You can cater the vocabulary to meet each class’s needs.

The quizlet web tool allows you to type in the vocabulary word but then gives the option of creating a specific definition or the option for using one of several definitions they have on file, a great time savior for the creator.

Once the vocabulary has been created, there are several study modes to choose from. Familiarize is an electronic version of the traditional flashcard where the student can view and review as often as needed.

The “learn” option gives the definition and allows you to add the word in the space provided. There is immediate feedback showing if the word added is correct or incorrect. Once the student has gone through the entire list, a percentage is given showing how many definitions were matched correctly and how many were not.

After the student has had the opportunity to learn the vocabulary, they then have the opportunity to quiz themselves with interactive review games. My personal favorite is play scatter. This review game gives the student several definitions and several words scattered all over the page and the student must lay the word over the correct definition for that set to disappear. Once all sets disappear and the screen is blank, a timed score appears. The student is then given the opportunity to replay the game and beat their current time. I love this example of positive reinforcement. If you use quizlet, I am sure you will become hooked as I did.

Quizlet.com. (2009). Welcome to Quizlet. Retrieved on October 21, 2009 from http://quizlet.com/