Thing 12: Evaluating an Online Tool ITEC 7430

Quizlet is a great tool.  Even though some people don’t want to admit it, science is a very vocabulary rich subject.  It is also at many times difficult vocabulary.  Not too many synonyms and antonyms of the words students need to learn. Many of the science concepts they need to learn are the words themselves.  With Quizlet the teacher can setup flashcards with the words, definitions or specific concepts.  You can also use pictures to match with words and definitions.  Another thing I liked a lot about Quizlet is the text to speech.  The students can have the word and the definition said aloud.  The voice is very clear and concise.  This would be very help for ELL students that have trouble reading english.  For any language class that would be a valuable part of this tool. Quizlet also has game options that the students can play by themselves or the teacher can use on the SMART board as review.  The Flashcards can be printed out and use to study without a computer.  I already made one for the coming test this week and I am going to try it on the SMART board.  I also am going to try to link or embed the flashcards onto my school website so that students can access it directly. 

I have used Wordle for a writing promt.  Using it as a word bank and emphasizing the words I really would like to see them use.  Some of the other tools I looked at and they would be good.  Tough part as in all of them is that the students require an email account and some would need to be monitored and didn’t see a way for that to happen.  I really wish there were sites using these tools were a teacher can set up a classroom and have all students use them and that way no worries for an email or monitoring.   I have recently been using Go Animate.  Look for it soon on the wiki for the project we have to do.  Let you know the ins and outs.

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study earth flash cards

Web Development

Web development is cool. I can remember growing up when computers were first coming in to the schools. We had to work with code (DOS). If we wanted to play a game we had to write the program with code in order to activate it. Today you don’t have to worry about the code. It is all done for you behind the scenes. Every once in awhile a code will pop up and memories arise. Working with code can be time consuming but it is great to be able to know what it all means. It helps when you are designing a webpage and something does not seem to work well. I like having the ability to change or fix something then just accepting it. I really enjoy working with code and wished I had the time to really dedicate to developing web designs with codes.

Thing 11: Slideshow

Thing 10: Flickr

I chose Haiti Earthquake for my search.  I will soon be discussing earthquakes.  I have been trying to search for before pictures but I have not been able to find them yet.

 

Haiti Earthquake: Le Palais National

Image by AIDG

There were many great pictures that I found about the earthquake in Haiti.  They were very professional and I appreciate that most of them were available for download.  It was hard in trying to copy the name of the photographer to give the credit.  You had to write it down, then type it in and add the link.  I also had some struggles getting the picture into the blog.  I hope that would happen on other programs.  I worry that no matter how many times they hear or read about giving credit the students are just going to copy paste and forget to cite the source.  I wish that there was an easier way to be able to copy the URL.  I did realize that the intial pictures were about the topic I searched.  After going through the first few pages of search the pictures were no longer about the topic.  They may have been tagged with one of the keywords.  Did do a search on some of the words that my students might be inclined to accidently type to see what kinds of photos would show up.  Although as a whole they weren’t that bad they still would not be acceptable.  Would need to find some way of monitoring them or getting permission from the parents to be allowed to use it in school.   I wish there was a student version that can managed more closely to being kid appropriate.

Part 2: Flickr Creative Common (Thing 10)

Working on Plate Tectonics in class.  Going to start talking about earthquakes.  Haiti would be a great an example.  I hope that I can find some before photos for the slideshow.

Image by waterdotorg

Image by Nathan Colquhoun






Image by  AIDG

Thing 9: Creative Common ITEC7430

Lately on some sites I have seen the CC logo on them.  I did not know what it meant.  I can recall a long time ago looking into what CC stood for but did not think much of it.  At school we discuss how important it is to give credit to those whom they gather information from.  We also discuss about not just copying and having to write things in their own words.  Many of the CC I have seen been on photos.  Students love to use pictures on their projects.  This way they can use photos properly. 

I enjoy sharing ideas and contents to anyone who needs it.  I like the idea of sharing because other people can also help in improving or giving you ideas to make something better.  Some negatives can be when there is collaboration.  Sharing ideas together can turn into something new.  If one person wants to post it but not the other then who owns the rights.  They would have to be some collaboration right.     

Thing 7: Wikis ITEC7430

Wikis sound like another great tool for teachers.  It can be used as another collaboration tool, information posting site, and other great ideas.  Although at first when I started looking at them it seemed to me that they were more like a website to place information about a teacher’s class. When I was looking for some of the examples of the wiki collaboration, I didn’t see many that showed it.  If I did find them I had to do a lot of searching by clicking around the home site.  Could have been maybe because I am not part of the wiki was why I didn’t see that aspect of it. Took longer than I thought it would to find a wiki showing collaboration.  I didn’t see much of the interacting and editing that they talked about in a wiki.  .  I did have the benefit of seeing a good use for them. The ones that I was able to see got me thinking. The Code Blue wiki was great.  I gather that the students had picked the name of their groups and gave a bio about what kind of doctor they would be.  Did enjoy the fact they some of them were very young doctors.  The Counting Book was another nice one that gave me an idea for posting on certain topics and seeing if students can match pictures to them.  Mr. Lindsey’s page was well organized with information but I didn’t see examples of collaboration between students.  Wikis can be great but I don’t think it is for everyone.

I don’t foresee the use of a wiki in my class for the moment.  If your school doesn’t provide a site I can see the use of a wiki.  My school has their own product that allows having a website (SchoolFusion).  All the schools and teachers have their own sites.  Here we can post our homework, description of what we are discussing in class, links to sites the students can use, files of work done in class, and announcements.  The use of all these functions also doesn’t require the students to have email accounts.   There are other things such as blogs, wikis, and online quizzes that require the students to have to a log in.  This is provided to them at the beginning of the school year.  I did try the wiki that is offered with Fusion.  It didn’t seem to easy to use.  Maybe also because I wasn’t trained and didn’t quite know how to work the wiki that comes with our website properly.  The thing I have come to notice and I might be wrong but it seemed that only one person could edit at a time.  This would make the task difficult when you want to make it a class assignment.  I can see me using it as a page to post extra information and have students using it as a study guide for what they are learning.  I would probably just use a wiki as a supplementary tool.   I also don’t about using it with teachers.  It would be useful with teachers that I don’t work with at my school.  I could use it a collaboration tool with them since it is harder to plan to meet them and discuss ideas.  At my school we actually do a good job communicating with each other in other ways and feel that it would be just another thing we would have to monitor along with the website we already have.

Thing 5 - Getting Started with RSS ITEC7430

Many a time looking from site to site I would see a little orange square sometimes with an RSS next to it.  Never thought much about it until now.  (Really enjoy learning the new and useful things in my class).  RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  Really simple is right.  I didn't like having to go to each website everytime to see if there was something new.  Especially when I need current events to go over in class.  Now I can just search in place.  Best thing of it all, it comes to me instead. 

Did have to control myself and really think about which RSS I wanted to add to my reader.  I have been checking now a little more often Edutopia and SMART EDCompass beacuse i don't have go through the website.  Instead I read the  sinpits of the articles and pick the one that takes me right to it. One of the new sites that are in my reader is TechLearning and Free Technology for Teachers. 

Still need to learn how to manage the reader.  Weeding out those feeds that don't make sense in really having will take time.  Looking forward to using that little orange square.