Class Websites & Skype in the Classroom

Class websites or blogs are a great addition to any effective classroom. They allow you to compile all components of your teaching (assignments, discussions, grades, communication, etc) in one spot that can be used for you to communicate with your students, for them to keep up to date with classroom activities, and for parents to stay involved in their children's education. I personally will definitely be using a website in my classroom. I like the idea that all important information can be posted online and accessed from anywhere. This will undoubtedly clear up many communication issues between students, teachers and parents before they even arise. I think it is also a great way to post additional learning material and related topics to engage students further and get them interested in a specific subject area.

Many people have often used Skype as a free long distance communication tool to talk with friends or relatives, but have never really thought much about other applications from this form of communication.

Skye is an excellent communication tool to use in a classroom. There are so many applications for it beyond simple communication with students outside of the classroom. You can stretch online communication further with Skype and have guest speakers in the classroom via Skype, communicate with parents, communicate with other classrooms and students around the world, just to name a few. I really like the idea of communicated with students in other parts of the world as it is very rare for many kids to get the opportunity to see what life is like for other cultures first hand. This is a great way to open doors and inspire curiosity about the world outside your comfort zone. A great initiative in this direction has already been started:  

 The Around the World with 80 Schools Project". This is a global communication project where schools from across the globe connect with each other. The general idea is for students from each classroom to have the opportunity to connect for a few minutes with each other to help them not only to understand other cultures, but to show them just how technology and globalization is making our world smaller. Check out their website to learn more about this project.

http://aroundtheworldwith80schools.net/
Check out this video, these students are playing a question and answer game with another school and they have to figure out where in the world they are from:


The Mystery Skype Call from langwitches on Vimeo.

I think something like this would be so fun!!
Skype can also be used to bring people into your classroom that you could not normally get in. The Royal Tyrrell museum has a in class program where a dinosaur expert gives you the grand tour but you don't even have to leave your desk!



This is just another form of education through Skype, it just doesn't carry the name brand of Skype with it. It shows you how distance learning and communication can be made easy through Skype.

References:
http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/programs/distance_learning.htm
http://aroundtheworldwith80schools.net/

RRS Feeds

RSS feeds stand for Really Simply Syndication feeds. What does that mean exactly? Well essentially updates on sites you subscribe to come directly to your email as they are updated. This means that you no longer have to search out new material on your favorites sites because you will be notified when something is updated. The icon for RSS feeds is seen almost everywhere, if a site you like has this icon (see image in top left) then you can subscribe to updates from that site through an RSS feed.

There are many ways to use RSS Feeds in the classroom, it is a great way to stay updated on new and exciting curriculum material. If you have a class blog then and RSS feed would allow you to be updated when your students post to the blog. It is a great way to communicate with your students. I think it’s useful to see RSS feed on websites as it’s a great way to direct you to related information you may not have otherwise considered. RSS feeds are a great way to combine all areas of your online activities into one simple location.  

Social Networking in the Classroom

Social networking is a great way to get your students involved in discussing school related topics in a method that they can relate to, understand, and enjoy using. Social media started out as a fun way to connect with friends, but it has evolved to become so much more. It has become a powerful tool for educators to open up a world of possibilities and connections to our students. Social networking tools like; Facebook, Twitter even Skype are connecting students to learning opportunities in new and exciting ways. It is also part of their everyday life so it would silly to ignore it in the classroom.

There are so many ways to use the different social networking sites in the classroom, many activities can cross grade levels and subject areas. It just takes a little creativity! I found a great blog on OnlineUniversities.com with some awesome ideas for classroom applications of social media tools. OnlineUniversities also had a great article about the impacts of using social networking in the classroom its worth checking out! It had some great ideas of different social networking options that you could use in the classroom like Brainify. http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/05/100-inspiring-ways-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom/

100Inspiring Ways to Use Social Media in the Classroom

The first idea on this site really jumped out at me. It has the students create facebook accounts for characters in a novel study. I would take it a step further as a writing assignment and have the students email each other (or post on the walls) as if they were the characters talking about events occurring in the novel. You could connect it with art and have the students sketch their characters, scan the drawings and use them as their profile pictures.

Even sites like Today’sMeet can be used as a discussion forum while working on another project in class, kind of a background commentary to another lesson. This way you can view all the students comments, but it is more casual then an essay or writing an entire blog entry. 

I think using social media in any way we can is a great idea. Students use it so much already, rather than fight it we should embrace it.

Internet Safety

Internet Safety is of growing concern to teachers and parents alike. Despite all the technology in place today like; web filters and firewalls, as the internet grows so do the safety problems associated with it.  It is hugely important that despite the technology in place to protect students from unsafe sites, that students are taught to be aware of the issue and understand the importance of being web aware. T this will help them in the future and when internet filters and firewalls are not enough.

Web safety itself is comprised of a variety of issues from protecting personal privacy to cyber bullying and everything in between. Students use the internet in a variety of ways, BeWebAware lists the main reasons for internet use as; Research and homework, Social Networking, Blogging, and File sharing. Once we understand how and why students are using the internet we better prepare them for the challenges that they will face while online. While online some of the safety issues that students will encounter are; cyber bullying, pornography, sexually explicit material, personal privacy/identity issues, and marketing risks. BeWebAware has some great resources for preparing ourselves and our students for being safe online. There are many sites available out there that even provide completely constructed lesson plans for all grades pertaining to web safety like CyberSmart. Due the fact that internet is becoming such a huge part of education and our everyday lives, the issue of internet safety cannot be ignored. The issues and skills to prevention need to be addressed to our students.
The fist step is educating ourselves so that we can be better prepared to help our students.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is growing in popularity and picking up speed in the education world. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product that needs to be purchased, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devises as a utility over a network like the internet. (Wikipedia, 2011) Essentially things are created, shared, and stored online and the software used to create things are available online rather than stored on an individual computer. These websites do an excellent job at explaining cloud computing:
http://coastalwebdesign.ca/how-cloud-computing-works/
http://wp.nmc.org/horizon-k12-2010/chapters/cloud-computing/

Cloud computing is as basic as Gmail or Hotmail, but can include so many other forms. I’ve been using both Gmail and Drop Box for years. Drop Box is an excellent storage system, you can put files from your home computer and work in a drop box folder and you can access them anywhere in the world via the internet. This can also be shared with other so that they too can access the shared files. Here’s a little video to explain drop box:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFb0NaeRmdg

You can start to see the benefit of cloud computing in education. Cloud computing has its place in personal use like Gmail, facebook etc, but it has great use in education. Cloud computing in education is low-cost and a free form of technology: There has been a huge growth in low-cost and free technology for social interaction, publishing, collaborating, editing, content creation, computing, etc. The fact that it can be mobile and is so convenient makes it perfect for education. It is great to use in the classroom because it stores data online, so there is no more “I lost it” from students. Plus it’s a great way for students work collaboratively on assignments wile at home. This type of technology will also become hugely advantageous for online education. I will definitely be using some form of cloud computing in my classroom.

Online Presentations

I just finished creating an online presentation on how advertising effects youth. I used Sliderocket to create my presentation and with that I was able to include pictures, embed videos, and include an audio file. All in all creating the presentation was quite easy. I'm comfortable using Power Point and I found that slide rocket operated the same way making it quite easy to navigate without even looking at the tutorial or needing help.
Heres a link to my presentation if you wanna check it out:
http://app.sliderocket.com/app/sliderocket.aspx?sessionID=002ed0b9-76ef-4009-8ab7-39126c197c4a#


After I completed the whole process I realize how useful online presentations are for something like group projects or as a student, even for companies and business presentations. They have the benefit of being online, so as long as there is access to the internet all the material is stored online and accessible anywhere. This is also beneficial for group projects because more than one person can access and edit a presentation without the need having to meet face to face with the group.

I did run into a few snags with adding sound to my presentation. There wasn't any detailed directions about the type of sound file that could be  uploaded and I did't know anything about recorded sound when I started out. It took me quite along time to figure out that all my recordings wouldn't work because they were not mp3 files and the help information on SlideRocket was no assistance with this issue. That would be my only complaint.

Wiki's in Education

What are Wiki's?


First off I should explain briefly what Wikis are."A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser." (Wikipedia, 2011) Wikipedia is a very common and widely used example of a wiki. (Wikipedia, 2011.) Check out this video it does an awesome job and giving a basic explanation for what wikis are and how they work.

Wikis in Plain English:

http://www.commoncraft.com/video/wikis


Wikis are a great tool to use in the classroom, especially if you want an assignment that is accessible through the internet. It allows students to work together, organizing, creating, and learning a topic without the constraints of working face to face during class time. I think using wikis in the classroom is great for things like study tools. This way the information presented on the Wiki is always there for the students to access at their leisure. It also encourages students to present their best work as they are collaborating and presenting their work to their peers. Wikis are therefore the perfect tool for creating group projects. 


There are several advantages to using Wiki's in the classroom:

• They allow for web based storage of work (you don't have to worry about dogs eating homework, or loosing assignments!)
• They require little to no technical knowledge. (although this assumes a basic knowledge of computers and internet research is already present)
• They can be accessed anywhere, anytime, by any type of computer as long as there is an internet connection
• One user can share his or her work with all of the users at one time.
• A wiki can be protected with a password so you don’t have to worry about the public viewing it. 

Despite the advantages there are some disadvantages to using Wikis in the classroom:

Most of the disadvantages of Wikis have to do with organization and setting clear standards for students contributions to the Wiki.

• Rules and expectations for the Wiki need to be clearly defined and often updated as the Wiki progresses and grows
• The Wiki's content needs to be constantly monitored to be sure that appropriate and accurate content is being uploaded.  This is a very time-consuming task, but is necessary especially if you want your student to be able to use the information on the Wiki correctly.
• Wikis requires students to be connected to the Net and have access to a computer. (This is only an issue if the Wikis are being assigned as homework, or if you expect the information to be accessible as a personal study tool)

All in all I think I would use wikis in my classroom, but I would be sure only to assign marks to a wiki or use it for important issues if I was sure all of my students had access to the wiki at home or had enough class time.
Here's and example of how I would use a Wiki in my science 7 classroom:  Create a classroom Wiki as a unit review or study tool, I would have the students contribute to a makeshift unit 'encyclopedia'.  Each student would be given a term or mini topic, to post about on the wiki. These “mini topics” would contribute to the larger unit topic and serve as a review tool for all the information covered in the unit. This would make study notes accessible to all students via the internet. Students would have to opportunity to add to or edit other students post in order to increase the overall knowledge base and ensure the most accurate and detailed information ends up on the Wiki. However, this wiki would need to be carefully monitored by the teacher to ensure the students are getting the correct information, and a set minimum contribution would need to be established so that everyone is contributing equally to the wiki. This activity would work nicely with the grade 7 Planet Earth Unit, and more specifically the Rock Cycle related learning objectives as there is little to no opinion involved in this topic, so it would all be facts posted on the Wiki (eliminating possible discrepancies among responses).

Listserv's and Discussion Boards

There are several ways to use online discussion tools to enhance learning in the classroom. The key to finding the right discussion tool for you is having a firm grasp on the difference between the two main online discussion mediums: listserv’s, and discussion boards (forums).

A mailing list (listserv) is an electronic discussion tool that is email based.  You must subscribe to the email list and then you can receive the discussion emails and/or participate in them.  The alternative to this is using a discussion board. The difference here is that all the discussion takes place on a web interface and requires the users to go online and check the discussion at their own leisure.

I see a greater ‘classroom’ advantage, especially in the younger grades, to listserv’s. Listserv’s allow a teacher to keep contact with students, parents, and/or peers and send out reminders, assignments, and discussion topics without requiring the students to remember to check a discussion board on their own. Most people are more vigilant about checking their email, rather than remembering to check an online discussion board. I feel like listserv’s are better for keeping contact with your students, and it seems more personal. If I had to choose one for my classroom I much prefer listserv’s. 

Heres an example listserv for science teachers that I think is pretty good.

http://www.nsta.org/membership/listserver.aspx

Newsgroups

Newsgroups groups were completely foreign to me before embarking on this module. I understand the underlying principle behind them and what they are for but to be honest even after extensively navigating the various platforms (Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, etc.) I still don’t feel very confident with them. My favorite was Google Groups:

http://groups.google.com/?pli=1

I found them very daunting and haphazardly organized. Some were better than others, but it seemed to me that if you didn’t have something specific in mind you to search for, you would find endless options of loosely related topics and thousands of them. I just felt like the navigational interface was not as user friendly as some other online platforms.

The visual appeal and user interface of these newsgroup platforms could be more appealing, and if I feel this way my students will most definitely feel the same way. This lack of appeal can translate to less motivation and interest for the student’s when using platforms like this.

The process of signing up (creating an account), linked to email, has scared me off using them in education as there are many problems with newsgroups that arise from giving out your email. The fact that your email is given out and you might then receive endless amounts of spam seems inappropriate for school use.  It just seems like more of a hassle than it’s worth especially if you were dealing with younger grades.  There was just a lot of irrelevant material that you and your students would have to navigate through and it would also cause unwanted junk mail to deal with, which are both time consuming and irrelevant. Many of the groups out there also contain spam, inappropriate language, and prompts for pornography which can make them dangerous in a classroom setting.

The fact that USNET itself predates the internet tells me that there are probably better, newer, more user friendly online options of accomplishing a particular task. So all in all I would probably not use this technology in my classroom unless I had much more confidence in navigating through the junk and it being pivotal to learning.

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom:

To be perfectly honest I had never heard the term digital storytelling before now. I was familiar with power points and various movie maker programs like iMovie but I didn’t realize the wealth of options that are available to us for free online.  This opens up a whole new door in education allowing our students to explore and express themselves creatively through digital media, which is something they have become accustomed to and enjoy. It allows a student who may not consider themselves artistic to choose from art already available to them. Or a student who is bored or un-interested in writing essays to showcase their knowledge in a new and exciting way. It is also a great way for students who would not normally participate in class to have a voice and showcase their own creativity. 

Digital storytelling has the advantage of going beyond print on page and adding all sorts of complimentary mediums to the story like movie clips, pictures, animation and more. This helps students who don’t feel confident in their writing abilities alone by giving them a chance to enrich their story in other ways. Here’s a little video clip to help explain digital storytelling and how it can be used in the classroom:

I started my journey through digital storytelling with Storybird, which is a great site for beginner digital storytellers as most of the work is already done for you, you simply fill in the blanks with a story! Very little editing can be done with Story Bird but this simplicity of use allows students to focus on their writing rather than getting to wrapped up in the digital aspect of things. The artwork for Storybird is amazing, there is such a large variety to choose from. Check out a tutorial for Storybird to find out more about what it is capable of: 

Here is a digital story that I created using Storybird.

http://storybird.com/books/digital-storytelling-in-the-classroom/?token=ucar4b

I also checked out StoryJumper, which was another great beginner digital story creator. This one allowed for a bit more freedom to edit and personalize your story. There are also options to pay for a printed version, which I thought was kind of neat.

Digital storytelling has many uses in education; it integrates technology, can inspire and engage students, can cross curriculum, allows students to publish their work globally encouraging students to take pride in their work and strive higher, it can also be used for community involvement, group work and collaboration. This is just a few of the benefits of digital storytelling, however there are some disadvantages.  If digital storytelling is not utilized properly, it can be more of hindrance on learning than an aid. There is potential to focus too much on the technology aspects rather than on the writing skills and content itself, and this should be clearly expressed to the students before embarking on any digital storytelling project. It is great that students can add all sorts of bells and whistles to their stories through technology, but if the story itself takes a back seat then we are hurting our students’ progress and learning.

Check out some of these websites for a deeper look into digital storytelling and its uses in the classroom:

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKyGLZmJ8k&feature=related

www.xtranormal.com

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2790

http://21stcenturyreader.wikispaces.com/file/view/digitalstorytellingebook.pdf

Picture obtained from:

City of Surrey. (2010). Surrey Childrens Festival. Digital Storytelling Sign up. Retrieved Sept 19 from: http://www.surrey.ca/childrenfestival/8714.aspx

Is Education 1.0 Ready for Web 2.0 Students?

http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol3_issue4/Is_Education_1.0_Ready_for_Web_2.0_Students_.pdf

If your not to sure what Web 2.0 is here is a link to its description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Is Education 1.0 Ready for Web 2.0 Students?

by John Thompson

This article hits on some very good points. Education and the internet are now becoming intertwined and it is our responsibility as educators to recognize the demand for newer more digital and more globally connected means of delivery. Web 2.0 and education is about servicing the needs of today’s tech savvy generation and what they are familiar with, want, and what they need in order to learn.

It is about convenience for all and making education accessible to anyone worldwide.  It is inspiring to see more and more people become involved in their education through expression and interaction on the web. No longer do we just leave educating to a select few but we step up and add our bit for the world to share in. Learning through Web 2.0 forces us to be active learners rather than passive receptacles of information. Web 2.0 is a new way of learning through doing, exploration and contribution rather than just receiving the information. The internet is such a large part of our lives now and is a huge wealth of information that it would be silly not to utilize it as a learning tool for students. It also provides all sorts of learning mediums (music, text, video, games, blogs, etc) in which to appeal to all learning styles and preferences.

I feel strongly that because the population is becoming more accustom to using the internet and technology for everyday tasks and personal uses that they expect this to be prevalent in their education, if like any good business, schools wish to keep the edge then they will adopt and utilize what is popular. 

Thompson, J. 2007. Is Education 1.0 Ready for Web 2.0 Students?. Innovate 3 (4).http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol3_issue4/Is_Education_1.0_Ready_for_Web_2.0_Students_.pdf(accessed September 12, 2011)

Image obtained from:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Web_2.0_Map.svg