Each week during our intensive eight-week on-line course (hosted via Blackboard) we were divided into sub groups for discussion. One group member was assigned as the Discussion Summary Writer mid-week. My week was a bit different than the usual academic/theoretical discussions of assigned readings. Below is my summary followed by a list of Web 2.0 tools & accompanying links with a brief description in the words of the discussion group member.
Group D, Week 4
Written by Jennifer Dawson
Discussion Overview:
Most of our group had some experience using Web 2.0 tools; some extensively and some limited. The majority fell somewhere in the middle. The experiences with on-line professional development were similarly varied. Several members voiced concerns with technology overload and/or technology requirements sometimes becoming hindrances to authentic classroom implementation.
In some ways our dialogue served as sounding board for shared frustrations and challenges. Most reported a sense of sometimes being overwhelmed by the plethora of technology options and/or deterrents, and likewise strapped for time to cull good materials and/or solve implementation obstacles.
We particularly voiced frustration with school access to sites such YouTube and discovered that districts have varied reasons for blocking it from general lack of permission to "band-width capacity.” Some districts have recently unblocked YouTube for faculty and/or schools. There was agreement that TeacherTube isn’t a viable substitute for student engagement.
In redirect discussion many echoed a shared sense that no amount of online discussion replaces actual human interaction and collaboration. As several group members have been together in previous weeks, a sense of camaraderie has started to form. More than one has voiced anticipation at the opportunity to meet face-to-face in February.
Despite our mutual frustrations and challenges, we do hold that global education is justifiably and powerfully connected to technology use within and outside the classroom. From connecting with other students/teachers across the country/world to accessing new information, technology must continue to play an increasingly vital role.
Near week’s end, Sara shared what follows as both summary and suggestion. “Seems like we all have similar feelings about how time consuming it can become to navigate all that is available to us in the digital world! I'd like to recommend a book called Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. He profiles something he calls ‘nature deficit disorder’ among our children.
Highlighted Quotes:
Sonya Collins summed it up for many of us with “I find it more and more frustrating to try to teach 21st century students in a system that insists on 20th century technology.”
Regarding prior on-line professional development David Burton contributed: “The PD that I've gained via technology beyond the scope of this course has been, at best, superficial.”
Sara Damon verbalized both our struggle and hope: “After I've checked e-mail, updated my class Moodle pages, created lesson plans (typically utilizing the Internet and a variety of other online tools), I'm ready to step away from the computer. I know there's a wealth of great info out there, but I don't spend much time trolling educational blogs, etc.
Becoming globally competent is all about connectivity, and technology is now the major way in which we connect to others, so technology use is critical to global educators. I hope we do not lose the ability however to "unplug", slow down, and focus on the here and now. We need to remember how to connect with those who are in the room with us too. How much technology use is too much? When does it begin to destroy rather than build our common humanity?”
Unresolved Questions:
· I think we need to be careful with what we require our students to access as well. Is it better to show them everything and have them be overwhelmed or spend time truly learning with a few carefully selected sites/tools? It makes me wonder, in this information-saturated society, how much is too much?
· Does anyone think that this "virtual" way of learning devalues the true interaction of global learning? Are there ways we can approach technology/global learning that would be more valuable than others?
· I would WELCOME any ideas on how to promote more student interaction with each other via technology resources, especially within an environment that is so tech-phobic and in which there are not enough hardware resources at school (or at students' homes).
Great Ideas:
Sarah Damon: “Craig asked me to share this Wikispace with you. It describes a project my students have been involved in for the past three schools years focused on the Lost Boys of Sudan and raising funds to drill wells in South Sudan. Tomorrow evening we are hosting John Bul Dau, featured in the film God Grew Tired Of Us. If you have not seen this film, you must!” http://fromsudantostillwater.wikispaces.com/home
David Burton: "With all of my frustration on the blog feature within the district's website, I eventually turned to facebook last year as an "alternative" idea for blogging. I know schools have policies regarding teachers and students communicating via facebook (or similar) and I understand those policies. What I did was create a "fan" page on which the students select "like". Then, any articles or topics that I post on to the page will show up within their newsfeed. Students are free to make comments on the articles/topics I post, but due to the school policies being anti-facebook I have not added a requirement for the course in conjunction with the page. The primary things that get posted are "Today in History" notations to help serve as review for my AP US History class or news articles from a variety of U.S., British, and Germany (in English) news sources with issues relevant to my AP Human Geography class. Any of you are welcome to view that facebook page: www.facebook.com/MrDavidBurton”
Suggested Websites:
Free Technology Blog for Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/flip-snack-add-page-turning-effects-to.html
ArcGIS Online is a cloud-based geospatial content management system for storing and managing maps, data, and other geospatial information. Built on Esri's cloud infrastructure, it gives you access to geographic content shared and registered by Esri and GIS users around the world. http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisonline/index.html
ArcGIS for Desktop software enables you to discover patterns, relationships, and trends in your data that are not readily apparent in databases, spreadsheets, or statistical packages. http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop/index.html
Animoto (Free educator account) - Enhance your digital classroom with Animoto, the perfect tool for creating videos and presentations. It takes just minutes to create a video which can bring your lessons to life. http://animoto.com/education
AnswerGarden is a new minimalistic feedback tool. Use it as a tool for online brainstorming or embed it on your website or blog as a poll or guestbook. http://answergarden.ch/
Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. http://delicious.com/
Flipsnack is a free tool for turning your PDFs into ebooks with page turning effects. http://www.flipsnack.com/
FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme. http://freerice.com/category
Glogster EDU Premium is a collaborative online learning platform for teachers and students to express their creativity, knowledge, ideas and skills in the classroom. http://edu.glogster.com/
Google DOCS - Create and share your work online and access your documents from anywhere. https://docs.google.com/?pli=1#home
Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
Google Maps: “My students use Google Maps to plot colonization throughout the 19th and 20th century. Students have a great time navigating the maps and tagging it with specific information relevant to the unit being studied.” http://maps.google.com/
Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. http://moodle.org/
Poll Everywhere – “We had a film festival in class and students voted via text message using Poll Everywhere to choose their favorites.” http://www.polleverywhere.com/k12-student-response-system
Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software and storytelling tool for exploring and sharing ideas upon a virtual canvas. http://prezi.com/
Quizlet is thelargest flash cards and study games websitewith over 7 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. http://quizlet.com/
Shelfari allows students to create online book libraries of the books they have read along with review/critiques of the book. http://www.shelfari.com/
Skype - http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
Slideshare offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios. http://www.slideshare.net/
Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. http://www.tagxedo.com/
Today's Meet helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in real-time. Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs. http://todaysmeet.com/
TypePad – free & paid blogs http://www.typepad.com/
Weebly is a website/blogging tool for students http://www.weebly.com/
Wikispace - Wikis are simple web pages that groups, friends, and families can edit together. Starting your wiki at Wikispaces is fast, free, and easy. http://www.wikispaces.com/content/for/teachers
WizIQ offers a rich set of intuitive tools for online teaching. http://www.wiziq.com/
Wordle - I also like Wordle to create word clouds. http://www.wordle.net/
WordStash - Create your own digital flashcards and study online. http://wordstash.com/
Other: YouTube, Skype, Google Chat, and Facebook messenger to arrange late night study sessions.
Adult professional development: A Ning site was created for all participants to facilitate the dissemination of resources and idea sharing. Ning is the world's largest platform for creating custom social websites, social networks and communities.
Written by Jennifer Dawson
Discussion Overview:
Most of our group had some experience using Web 2.0 tools; some extensively and some limited. The majority fell somewhere in the middle. The experiences with on-line professional development were similarly varied. Several members voiced concerns with technology overload and/or technology requirements sometimes becoming hindrances to authentic classroom implementation.
In some ways our dialogue served as sounding board for shared frustrations and challenges. Most reported a sense of sometimes being overwhelmed by the plethora of technology options and/or deterrents, and likewise strapped for time to cull good materials and/or solve implementation obstacles.
We particularly voiced frustration with school access to sites such YouTube and discovered that districts have varied reasons for blocking it from general lack of permission to "band-width capacity.” Some districts have recently unblocked YouTube for faculty and/or schools. There was agreement that TeacherTube isn’t a viable substitute for student engagement.
In redirect discussion many echoed a shared sense that no amount of online discussion replaces actual human interaction and collaboration. As several group members have been together in previous weeks, a sense of camaraderie has started to form. More than one has voiced anticipation at the opportunity to meet face-to-face in February.
Despite our mutual frustrations and challenges, we do hold that global education is justifiably and powerfully connected to technology use within and outside the classroom. From connecting with other students/teachers across the country/world to accessing new information, technology must continue to play an increasingly vital role.
Near week’s end, Sara shared what follows as both summary and suggestion. “Seems like we all have similar feelings about how time consuming it can become to navigate all that is available to us in the digital world! I'd like to recommend a book called Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. He profiles something he calls ‘nature deficit disorder’ among our children.
Highlighted Quotes:
Sonya Collins summed it up for many of us with “I find it more and more frustrating to try to teach 21st century students in a system that insists on 20th century technology.”
Regarding prior on-line professional development David Burton contributed: “The PD that I've gained via technology beyond the scope of this course has been, at best, superficial.”
Sara Damon verbalized both our struggle and hope: “After I've checked e-mail, updated my class Moodle pages, created lesson plans (typically utilizing the Internet and a variety of other online tools), I'm ready to step away from the computer. I know there's a wealth of great info out there, but I don't spend much time trolling educational blogs, etc.
Becoming globally competent is all about connectivity, and technology is now the major way in which we connect to others, so technology use is critical to global educators. I hope we do not lose the ability however to "unplug", slow down, and focus on the here and now. We need to remember how to connect with those who are in the room with us too. How much technology use is too much? When does it begin to destroy rather than build our common humanity?”
Unresolved Questions:
· I think we need to be careful with what we require our students to access as well. Is it better to show them everything and have them be overwhelmed or spend time truly learning with a few carefully selected sites/tools? It makes me wonder, in this information-saturated society, how much is too much?
· Does anyone think that this "virtual" way of learning devalues the true interaction of global learning? Are there ways we can approach technology/global learning that would be more valuable than others?
· I would WELCOME any ideas on how to promote more student interaction with each other via technology resources, especially within an environment that is so tech-phobic and in which there are not enough hardware resources at school (or at students' homes).
Great Ideas:
Sarah Damon: “Craig asked me to share this Wikispace with you. It describes a project my students have been involved in for the past three schools years focused on the Lost Boys of Sudan and raising funds to drill wells in South Sudan. Tomorrow evening we are hosting John Bul Dau, featured in the film God Grew Tired Of Us. If you have not seen this film, you must!” http://fromsudantostillwater.wikispaces.com/home
David Burton: "With all of my frustration on the blog feature within the district's website, I eventually turned to facebook last year as an "alternative" idea for blogging. I know schools have policies regarding teachers and students communicating via facebook (or similar) and I understand those policies. What I did was create a "fan" page on which the students select "like". Then, any articles or topics that I post on to the page will show up within their newsfeed. Students are free to make comments on the articles/topics I post, but due to the school policies being anti-facebook I have not added a requirement for the course in conjunction with the page. The primary things that get posted are "Today in History" notations to help serve as review for my AP US History class or news articles from a variety of U.S., British, and Germany (in English) news sources with issues relevant to my AP Human Geography class. Any of you are welcome to view that facebook page: www.facebook.com/MrDavidBurton”
Suggested Websites:
Free Technology Blog for Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/flip-snack-add-page-turning-effects-to.html
ArcGIS Online is a cloud-based geospatial content management system for storing and managing maps, data, and other geospatial information. Built on Esri's cloud infrastructure, it gives you access to geographic content shared and registered by Esri and GIS users around the world. http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisonline/index.html
ArcGIS for Desktop software enables you to discover patterns, relationships, and trends in your data that are not readily apparent in databases, spreadsheets, or statistical packages. http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop/index.html
Animoto (Free educator account) - Enhance your digital classroom with Animoto, the perfect tool for creating videos and presentations. It takes just minutes to create a video which can bring your lessons to life. http://animoto.com/education
AnswerGarden is a new minimalistic feedback tool. Use it as a tool for online brainstorming or embed it on your website or blog as a poll or guestbook. http://answergarden.ch/
Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. http://delicious.com/
Flipsnack is a free tool for turning your PDFs into ebooks with page turning effects. http://www.flipsnack.com/
FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme. http://freerice.com/category
Glogster EDU Premium is a collaborative online learning platform for teachers and students to express their creativity, knowledge, ideas and skills in the classroom. http://edu.glogster.com/
Google DOCS - Create and share your work online and access your documents from anywhere. https://docs.google.com/?pli=1#home
Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
Google Maps: “My students use Google Maps to plot colonization throughout the 19th and 20th century. Students have a great time navigating the maps and tagging it with specific information relevant to the unit being studied.” http://maps.google.com/
Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. http://moodle.org/
Poll Everywhere – “We had a film festival in class and students voted via text message using Poll Everywhere to choose their favorites.” http://www.polleverywhere.com/k12-student-response-system
Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software and storytelling tool for exploring and sharing ideas upon a virtual canvas. http://prezi.com/
Quizlet is thelargest flash cards and study games websitewith over 7 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. http://quizlet.com/
Shelfari allows students to create online book libraries of the books they have read along with review/critiques of the book. http://www.shelfari.com/
Skype - http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
Slideshare offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios. http://www.slideshare.net/
Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. http://www.tagxedo.com/
Today's Meet helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in real-time. Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs. http://todaysmeet.com/
TypePad – free & paid blogs http://www.typepad.com/
Weebly is a website/blogging tool for students http://www.weebly.com/
Wikispace - Wikis are simple web pages that groups, friends, and families can edit together. Starting your wiki at Wikispaces is fast, free, and easy. http://www.wikispaces.com/content/for/teachers
WizIQ offers a rich set of intuitive tools for online teaching. http://www.wiziq.com/
Wordle - I also like Wordle to create word clouds. http://www.wordle.net/
WordStash - Create your own digital flashcards and study online. http://wordstash.com/
Other: YouTube, Skype, Google Chat, and Facebook messenger to arrange late night study sessions.
Adult professional development: A Ning site was created for all participants to facilitate the dissemination of resources and idea sharing. Ning is the world's largest platform for creating custom social websites, social networks and communities.