Google Sites Presentation

Google Sites

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Google Sites

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Google Sites Presentation


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Web 2.0 Resources for Teachers

For all my fellow teachers, I attended the ILC 2008 Conference for educators, last week in San Jose. Basically, this was an Ed Tech conference for teachers that focused on K-12 technology integration, with an emphasis on Web 2.0 tools. One of the workshops I attended presented some great Web 2.0 tools and resources for teachers. I thought I would post them here, in case you want to take a look. Of particular interest is the online graphic organizer, image editor and presentation tool.

Enjoy..

Source: Carolyn Tuomy, ILC Conference, San Jose, October 15, 2008

1. Online Stopwatch http://www.online-stopwatch.com

2. Diigo http://www.diigo.com
Social Bookmarking

3. SlideRocket http://www.sliderocket.com
Online presentation software

4. Picnik www.picnik.com
Photo Editing tools

5. ReQall http://www.reqall.com
A voice transcription service

6. Dipity http://www.dipity.com
Online timelines

7. Dropio http://drop.io.com
Online file storage

8. Animoto http://animoto.com
Create music video with your images and photos

9. Jing http://www.jingproject.com
Screen capture to share images and screencasts from your computer
to anywhere

10. Mind42 http://www.mind42.com
Online collaborative mind mapping


11. 10. Mindomo http://www.mindomo.com
Online graphic organizer; embed videos; export outline version for students

Hmm...What Can I Get Into Next?

I had the chance to play around with Flickr and VoiceThread and preferred VoiceThread for this project. VoiceThread was easy to use and I enjoyed the perusing through their online gallery to see other projects. It was nice to see other projects, probably assigned by K-12 teachers, to get some ideas and inspiration. Enjoy my story!!!!

Locative Media and the End of Digital Storytelling?

I enjoyed Leslie Rule's presentation on locative media up until she mentioned that Digital Storytelling is "dead, morose and depressing". Digital Storytelling can in fact be uplifting, inspirational, robust and exciting, depending on the tone, the assignment and the storyteller. I would even make a case for Digital Storytelling, based on Daniel Pink's theory in that it forces the storyteller to use the right side of their brain; to listen to their creative side, to cultivate their imagination and develop a meaningful story. It's easy to go somewhere and talk about that location's significance...cool. However, a beautiful story is not easy to tell and the techniques of digital storytelling provide learners with the tools to craft a story that is personal and necessary to share with others. On a cultural level, digital storytelling preserves folklore, traditions, mores and oral history which are the ties that bind communities and families.

Meanwhile.......

I thought about locative media and how it could be useful to me. I have never really been sold on Google Earth, but I had a chance to attend a workshop presented by Jerome Burg, the creator of a website, Google Lit Trips (http://www.googlelittrips.com/), and his examples of curriculum integration of Google Earth were invaluable. He created Google Lit Trips using Google Earth, where a student could experience great works of literature and nonfiction, such as The Grapes of Wrath or Night, by tracing the routes the various characters took throughout their journey. On a Google Lit Trip, students can experience the topography of the area, view maps and images and pause to reflect on questions that are posed along the route. As I watched the presentation, I thought this could be a meaningful learning experience for students.

Infoclouds and Mobile learning

One of the most important elements of Web 2.0 tools is the ability to create media outside of the mainstream. As I read the article, "Mobile, wireless, connected Information clouds and learning," I immediately thought about "live" blogging where people blog at an event, about an event, as it is happening in real time. This is great, given the fact that a quiet revolution is happening in journalism, in particular, where people can access blogs for alternative perspectives to mainstream media. I thought about how my students could attend an event, blog in real time and immediately upload to the web, given whatever mobile device is in their possession. This creates potential for rich learning experiences for teachers and students as they can expand their curriculum to include mobile devices in lesson planning and project based learning. Say for example, I wanted to create a virtual walking tour of San Francisco murals. Students can be sent to the Mission district, take pictures of murals, tag the image based on location and upload their pictures to a blog, Voice Thread, Flickr or any other online Web 2.0 site. Students could immediately view the tour, comment and discuss the murals and their meanings. This creates an engaging experience since the learning, image capture and comments occur on site and at that moment.

However, mobile learning should be one of many tools educators use to engage their students and design curriculum. I like the idea of user control and contextual / situational learning and the ability to share this experience with others. In my opinion, this can be an authentic learning experience, however, there needs to be some structure or guidelines in place so that the information is rich, meaningful and relevant. As an educator, I want students to post work that has educational value and follows copyright and fair use guidelines.

Learning for the 21st Century

I preferred this article much more to the previous article from last week's reading assignment. I felt that this article was much more balanced in that it presented a picture of today's learner and provided insight on how schools can appeal to these learners while emphasizing 21st century skills that are necessary for today's job market. Most importantly, the article stressed the importance of learning core subjects and expanding students content knowledge so that they are better prepared as critical thinkers and individuals who understand how they learn and how to apply this knowledge to new situations or problems. Of course, technology was a key component of the 21st Century classroom and teachers must integrate technology and information literacy with traditional standards-based curriculum. If teachers fail to do so, they will not prepare students and could ultimately fail to engage students in the learning process.

I found this article to be particularly relevant to my teaching, students and curriculum. It reinforced the notion that the digital divide must be addressed as well as proficiency in core subject knowledge so that students are prepared for today's job market, higher education and civic engagement. This article also provided examples of school districts who adopted technology integration within their existing pedagogies and actually provided examples of how this can be implemented in other classrooms.

Below is my interpretation of the article, using the "Freemind" mapping software.