I will graduate in May after student teaching in the Omaha area. I won't lie--I feel very unprepared and very nervous to think that it will be my job to teach the students. It seems crazy that I will be the one preparing the lessons, and having to think of MANY ways to teach the kids. How many of us were given worksheets, took notes, and took tests in high school? How boring was that?! Now that I am the teacher though, it seems a little scary that I can't hand out those easy worksheets:) If I don't hand out worksheets I need to be really proactive in preparing for my lessons, that's where the World Wide Web comes in!
Dr. Z suggested we read through the fourth chapter of Web 2.0: how-to for educators written by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum, I found myself skimming the entire book. I appreciate that the book cites a tool, and then explains it quickly then shows how you could use it or gives a real life example. The book is $22 on Amazon, go get it--it's worth the money!
When thinking about all of the things I could use in my class I looked at a variety of sites and blogs to find tools. The first item that I find very useful is Delicious. I was introduced to this handy tool my sophomore year of college and have not stopped using it. This cloud, allows you to find web pages and bookmark them out in space to use on any internet powered device anywhere. The best thing about it is being able to use tags. Students could use these tags to tag a group, this way they can share sources between each other. I could also use our class tag to give out recommended sources--this will allow students to do their work at home and make it easier on them if they forget their notebook with all the handy links. This saves students paper and time--no need to jumble around with 100's of article print outs. This will also give me the opportunity to see what sites the students are looking up, and I can help sway them to a better choice.
I love the idea of Inspiration, but not all of us can afford it and sometimes we simply need a mind map that is easy and efficient. Bubbl.us does that for me! This will allow me or a student to do some brainstorming. Some students need to see the ideas on paper, and this will allow them to do so and form their thoughts in a logical order. This would also be a really good idea to use as a note taking tool.
Lastly, I really just like the idea of making videos and podcasts. I think that this is a great way for students to learn in a different way. Itunes, PBS, Youtube, History Channel, etc all have great options for videos. I like the idea of creating videos though as well. This will give a great variety in lesson planning, I could create a podcast for students are absent, or have them create a video for a hypothetical museum opening to feature a specific time period. The point is that the options are endless! PodBean, is a great tool to publish the podcasts and it's free! iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are both fantastic tools to use, and both are free. They are easy to use for me to do something quickly, but also for students to easily figure out the software.
What other Web 2.0 tools can we use to replace the mundane school work?
I like the social bookmarking service – Delicious that you introduced to us. I have been using a similar bookmarking service ( www.douban.com, it is a Chinese bookmarking service) since 2003. It not only provides me a space to share favorite books or articles with others but also provide a chance to build discussion groups between people who share the same interests. By viewing the comments from professionals to ordinary people, I can easily filter out the resources what I want with less time spending.
ReplyDeleteI found some interesting web 2.0 tools and I think they might bring some changes to our classroom.
Edmodo ( http://www.edmodo.com/) is an online learning platform, which kind like our BB9 blackboard, with less professional but handier. Teachers can post assignments and grade online. It doesn’t need special maintenance and is free. I think it can be used in primary school and middle school.
Wallwisher (http://www.wallwisher.com/) is an online notice board maker. Students can use it as a bulletin board to report daily news and post questions to seek for help.
Animoto (http://animoto.com) is an online video tool can be used to develop students’ creativity. It allows students to turn their ideas to beautiful videos and share them with their classmates online.
Museum Box (http://museumbox.e2bn.org/) can be used as a tool in students’ history course.
This site provides the tools for students to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. Anything from a text file to a movie can be displayed to support their argument. Teachers are able to review and approve students’work.
Museum Box is something that I have heard of, but have never used it. I can't wait to, and hope to someday it seems like a fantastic tool!
ReplyDeleteCassie,
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your student teaching! How exciting that it is coming up so quickly! I understand, though, how unprepared you might feel at times. It's intimidating. I think you commented on my post about success, which I kind of talked a little bit about second guessing myself. Maybe saying I feel unprepared is a better way of putting it. Either way, I'm sure you're going to make a great teacher!
I loved the resources you shared on your post! Here is another one that I have found, but haven't used yet. It's called present.me (www.present.me). This site allows you to create a presentation with you and your slides in the same frame. Check it out! It's awesome. It does cost though, but it seems worth the money when you visit the site.
Don't be nervous Cassie! I'm sure that you will do great. There are so many options out there for us to use rather than having to resort to worksheets. A Web 2.0 tool that I think would be useful is: http://www.picsviewr.com/
ReplyDeleteThis is a place where Flickr photos can be showcased in several creative ways. My favorite is the Tiltviewer. A series of photos would be shown tilted and able to move as you scroll over them. There is a button that rotates the images and behind the images would be a description of it. This is a great tool for fun presentations!