K12 Learning 2.0

In closing, this class has certainly broadened my horizons.  I entered this class with the mindset that I would be gaining new knowledge and tools but I truly had no idea.  I now need to find time to explore these new tools and share them with those that can put them to use.  As a technology teacher I feel that my role is to give classroom teachers tools that will increase their use of technology with their students.  I still work with teachers that I feel would like to see computers disappear.  They are frightened of them because they have not taken the time to find a use for them in their everyday curriculum.  Students love them.  I have seen how a DS can share information between two users.  How students could practice their multiplication facts on them.  I had no idea.  As teachers we must start using the technology that our students are constantly exploring.  Cell phones, DS’s, Facebook, YouTube must become a part of our daily curriculum.  We must continue to teach the basic technology to our students (keyboarding, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations) but at an earlier age. Teachers have to share with their students how to be safe on the web but at the same time what are the best resources to help locate information.  Students then need to be able to share information as an individual and as a team.

This class has been amazing at opening my eyes to possibilities!  I need this and look forward to sharing my new knowledge with those around me.  Thank you Shelley for your organization of these topics and sharing them.  Your work is much appreciated.  I hope to direct more teachers to your classes and these concepts of instruction.

After looking through the many products that this class has shared I keep finding myself coming back to the Wiki concept.  Within the readings sent to my Google Reader I have found a site that simply explains what a wiki is and gives some great ideas on how to go about using one.  I introduced some of our teachers to Wikispaces last spring and they began exploring the Wiki concept. 

http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikiideas1.cfm

I feel that I will enjoy exploring Classroom 2.0.  I need to start setting aside time each week to explore.  Now that I am at the end of this class I am going to have to turn into a sieve.  I am going to have to determine what information will help enrich my instructor the most effectively.  This summer has been a lot of super information.  Now which pieces will I use?  I can see how I can go to a place like Classroom 2.0 and locate pertinent, current information quickly and from other peers that are dealing with the same issues.  I like the forums.  I enjoy reading other people’s thoughts.  If nothing else, this site will continue to make me think.

I see Pageflakes as my future Webpage for school and at home.  I see myself setting up a page for students and parents as resources to specific content.  I like the tabs that allow you to quickly change pages.  I also like being able to move content from one tab to another by clicking and dragging.  I want to set it up like I have my igoogle page and then link between them.  I teach teachers at a technology consortium called The EighthFloor.  I will develop a tab for them to have resources to classes that I teach like Smart Boards.  I would like to setup a school wide site that teachers can access.  I just like the tabs features and the ease of uploading and finding other applications, and Websites that will enrich the content of your site.  Your site does not have to full of scrolling.  Also being able to minimize a tab controls your scrolling.  Great site!  Look forward to exploring and sharing it with other teachers and parents.

I have always been impressed with Microsoft Office.  I have been using it since 1993 and have used and taught with each advancing version through the latest MS2007.  My only wish for all of my students has always been, “Wouldn’t it be great if each student could access a copy of their files at home?”  Students that did not have a computer or the expensive software never received time at home to explore or just play with the software.  Finally there is now an opportunity for all of my students to have access to a suite of programs that have the power of Office.  Students can access their files from their homes, Panara, McDonalds, library, friends or family members.  And all it takes is an Internet connection.  I must start introducing this type of online software with students and faculty.

An example of using the spreadsheet would be having students track temperature and precipitation data from their home.  They could save the data on their once sheet in a shared document.  The data could be combined and analyzed as a class.

A word document could be a research paper on a topic that teams would continue to update and edit together until a time limit or specific rubric goal was met.

A team could develop a presentation over a specific season of constellations that include Hubble images and narration.

I like the ability to pull up a video, embed it on a page that my students will have access to and the present only the part or clip that I want them to see at that moment.  Many students need to see and hear an event in order to understand it.  YouTube and TeacherTube will only make our instruction more enriching.  At this point Will Richardson has impressed me by his many videos that he has posted.  I like to listen and begin understanding his views of what the future holds for technology.  I may not have researched hi views as in-depth as I have if it were not for his videos posted on YouTube.  I am always looking for videos on space to share with my students.  YouTube provides me current information that will benefit our students.  The video that I embedded is on a current topic that our school district (like many others) is beginning to endorse as a vital teaching tool and that is the Smart Board.  I received my first board back in 1998 when I began teaching computers.  Now the possibilities of the board’s use is growing more each day.  I need to gain information about new uses of the boards so I can continue to pass on its features to its new users.

I found developing the audio portion of the podcast very easy to do.  We use Audacity often to place student’s voices in PowerPoint presentations.  I am now ready to explore mixing voice and music.  The script writing, practicing the presentation and using a quality microphone will be the tasks that we will have to overcome at school.  I used my Logitech 9000 webcam to capture my voice.  I felt it did a quality job.  I feel our students could develop a podcast from research that they do on the night sky.  We could have a monthly presentation on what they can see from our latitude here in Oklahoma.  We could include constellations and their locations, messier objects, planet and moon observations, and invite individuals to our star nights.  This podcast I think has some possibilities!

I enjoyed the podcast called Smart Board Lessons Podcasts. We are beginning to all Smart Boards quickly to our district and I am certainly need more information on uses of the boards.  I feel that this Podcast will be of value to me as I take more time to listen to them.  It was easy to get into my Google Reader.  When I first started looking for Podcasts I was very surprised by all of the “fluff” that these sites provided.  When looking for information I guess I have always wanted to get to the point and find the information that I needed and then move on.  The Podcasts that I first found were filled with music and lots of unnecessary commentary that made me want to move on to other casts.  I finally figured that this is the way that most podcasts must be setup.  For the one that I settled on which talked about Smart Boards also had fluff but I decided it also pertained valuable information that would benefit me.  I am now looking forward to listening to this groups podcast and gleaning information that I will use and pass on to coworkers.  I know that I am new to podcasts.  I am beginning to see value in them and look forward to exploring them more.

I truly enjoyed the Library Thing.  It is the most fascinating yet.  Our school librarian and I set up a similar wiki earlier this year so that a group of students could read certain books and then respond to posted questions through the wiki discussion section.  I feel this program could take this concept even farther with others outside of our school being able to comment as well.  I still feel the wiki idea would work maybe better in the fact that we could control who could make comments through the limiting of access to the wiki.

I will personally use this program for my own use and my mother that is not technology savvy was quite impress with the ability to see others comments on their thoughts on the same books.  I will certainly share this site with others in my building.

I have been using Delicious for some time and it has certainly made my Internet navigation less time consuming when I am away from my home computer where I spend the most time surfing.  I now need to spend more time looking at other user’s links.  I have not used it for this purpose but I certainly see value in it.