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It is so important to protect students and educate them on how to navigate the internet properly, but more importantly to teach parents how to keep their kids safe! Please check out my google slide presentation for more information on internet safety and digital citizenship. Resources such as game for kids and parents are located near the end.
docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QlGgEyb_RGqmilKpkzdecQzCJYblwy4FaQv664XibD4/edit?usp=sharing Virtual environments are extremely engaging and useful tool in supporting the 4 C's collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking. Teaching critical thinking and problem solving effectively in the classroom is vital for students. Learning critical thinking leads students to develop other skills, such as a higher level of concentration, deeper analytical abilities, and improved thought processing. Students must be able to effectively analyze and process the overwhelming amount of communication in their lives today. Which information sources are accurate? Which ones are not? How can they be used or leveraged effectively? Dede states, "That part of the challenge today is that students must master applying such capabilities not only in academic settings, but also in complex, authentic real-world contexts." This is a very good point, and virtual realities do just that. Virtual realities are an especially important tools for diverse needs of learners by doing all of these things:
InCell is a great virtual environment, especially if you are a science teacher! You get to travel through a human cell and try to stop a virus!! Players will be able to understand cell structure and organelles functions (which are similar to the real functionality of the organelles) players will improve their skills and will have a chance to impress completely suspicious The Most Excellent Assistant Robot Zero-Seven. Click the link below to see it in action! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKVA--Bto53cmpOajB5dG1hR3M/view?usp=sharing The Digital Divide The digital divide in our school is fortunately very small. Our school is located in a moderately affluent area and I have maybe 1-3 students that do not have access to internet or some type of technology tool. I was extremely surprised by the number of people that do not have access to good internet or the ability to hook up to the internet. The video, Digital Divide between Rural and Urban America’s Access to Internet by CBS, was very eye opening and I am hopeful that this issue can be resolved soon. In my classroom, if students do not have access to the internet, I make sure they have the opportunity to complete any assignments in class and allow extra time for completion. References: Dede, C. (2015, June) 21st Century Students Crave Deeper Learning. Retrieved from: https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2015/06/21st-century-students-crave-deeper-learning
I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the collaboration tools and apps available. I was extremely impressed with Kathy Schrock's Bloomin' Apps site and felt it was a great resource and also shared it with my school as well. I had several teachers respond with thanks and will use this tool going forward. I love how it is simply laid out so you can go to which level of Bloom's taxonomy you would like for your students to attain. I also appreciated how she linked it to the SAMR model as well as giving her thoughts on how each level connected to SAMR.
Collaboration in the classroom is so important. Collaborative learning teams are said to attain higher level thinking and preserve information for longer times than students working individually. Why is this so? Groups tend to learn through “discussion, clarification of ideas, and evaluation of other’s ideas.” Perhaps information that is discussed is retained in long-term memory. Research by Webb suggests that students who worked collaboratively on math computational problems earned significantly higher scores than those who worked alone. Plus, students who demonstrated lower levels of achievement improved when working in diverse groups (TeachThought, 2018) With this being said here is the infographic on 20 Collaborative Learning Tips and Strategies for Teachers. All of these are beneficial and are great suggestions to use in the classroom.
There are many apps available to increase collaboration in the classroom. I really appreciated Edshelf to organize the tools I wanted my students to use. I created my own
Ed Shelf if you would like to see it. I posted this for my students to use on their One Note. I feel this will make it much easier for my students to be able to go to one location to find what they need.
I found these tech tips extremely valuable when you begin to look at apps and what goal or objective you have for your students. I looked at a few and here are the top ones I chose. I have used a few in my classroom and some I have not.
Padlet is amazing for collaboration! You can literally use it for anything. Here is a link with suggestions. The post above is where we used it for the end of a poetry and reading unit. Students collaborated to create a poem of their choice pertaining to the book we just finished reading.
Microsoft Teams is the next one I recommend. I just got my students on this last week and they loved it! I had them create a mystery so they could work on citing evidence to support their claim. Let's just say they were having a blast! These students below worked on a document together after they uploaded a file. It was great to see them all working intently on the same project.
Mindmeister is one I would like to try. I think this is a great app to use for several concepts and skills. I created one on citing evidence since this is our focus in class. I will share it with the class and have them use this in their book clubs. This tool has many ways to be used with collaboration. This mind map is very basic in nature and I expect the students to expand and make it much more visual with their evidence they will add.
Canva is a new tool to me that I would like to try in the classroom. You can create many things with Canva including a post, flyer, bookmark, cover page and even presentations, the list is endless. I created a book cover for the book we are going to be reading aloud in class. I am then going to put this on Mindmeister and we will then begin to analyze the book. There are some amazing ways you can use Canva! Please click the link to discover some amazing ways to engage your class:
https://www.canva.com/learn/10-ways-to-take-your-lessons-to-the-next-level-with-canva/ This was by far my new favorite because of the many ways you can use it.
Another new one is Show Me. For teachers, you can create videos for your students and either introduce new material or reference old material. I like the ease of use of this tool. Here is a lesson:
area and mixed numbers. This tool does have lessons available for use, but they are limited. It seems fairly new so more lessons will become available the more it is used. For students, they can show what they know and create a video lesson demonstrating their mastered skill.
Voicethread is a great tool. you can use this for collaboration, presentations, teaching... the list goes on. I enjoyed making mine and it is extremely easy to use. Here is 26 ways to use Voicethread in the classroom. So many ideas the list is endless and extremely engaging for the students . I would definitely check this one out.
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Our school does not have BYOD implemented. We currently have one to one devices and do use troubleshooting strategies in the classroom. We start off the year with a device contract with specific rules they must follow or their device will be taken from them. We have several strategies for getting them logged on, if they cannot connect to the internet, if the device is all of a sudden not playing sound or not working correctly for some reason, or our strategies do not work, when all else fails, restart! References: Schrock, K. (2018, October) Bloomin' Apps. Retrieved from: http://www.schrockguide.net/bloomin-apps.html TeachThought Staff. (2018, June 28). 20 collaborative learning tips and strategies for teachers. Retrieved from: https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/20-collaborative-learning-tips-and-strategies/ Visual Learning Tools Adobe Spark is an engaging, creative and fun way to generate a presentation. The presentation I created was for my fourth-grade class and my objective was to get them to infer what four things you need to focus on to infer what your character’s traits are. Take a look and see what you think below: spark.adobe.com/video/uMyHxG4HgpigU I created this presentation to show the students what I wanted them to do in their own presentation using the current book they are reading. Students will be required to list the four types of ways to infer character traits and cite evidence from their current book to show understanding of the concept in Adobe Spark. Students will then use this, or another means of presentation like Haiku Deck, to work on a PBL project in their book clubs. Students will be using a PBL I found from PBL Works. They will be working to create a set of shared criteria for a highly effective genre of the book club’s choice. Then work as a team to create their own story that includes these elements. This project will cover many standards and include differentiation using creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. I will also teach about copyright and Creative Commons and make sure each group is citing resources they are using. They need to understand it is important to give ownership to people’s work and not claim it as their own. Jennifer Gonzalez of the Cult of Pedagogy, just came out with a great article on Teaching Students How to Legally Use Images Online. Check it out! Productivity Tools There are many tools for students and teachers alike to use to increase their productivity. I focused mainly on Microsoft office 365 because we are a Microsoft school. Please see the screencast below for my evaluation of these tools. https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cqnZb10j References: Adobespark, 2019. www.adobespark.com Gonzalez, Jennifer. (2019, February 24). Retrieved from www.cultofpedagogy.com Haiku Deck, 2019. https://www.haikudeck.com/ PBL Works, 2019. https://my.pblworks.org/ I began using Twitter in 2012, I use it for two reasons. One, to follow other educators and get valuable ideas to increase my knowledge of subject matters that are of interest. The second reason, is to post the activities my class is doing. This keeps parents up-to-date and to build a network of community and collaboration. There are many ways to use Twitter, as stated before, I like to use it for getting professional development when I need it. There are so many amazing educators out there and being able to look at their feed or type in a hashtag for a particular area and find new strategies to implement a skill, is lifesaving. Being able to connect with other teachers makes solving problems easier and teaching manageable. Inspiring colleagues to follow are @JenRoberts1, @Cultofpedagogy, @WeAreTeachers, @tonyvincent. These are just a few of my favorites. Check them out!
In the article 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom, Samantha Miller discusses how to use Twitter in the classroom, saying it is a great way to connect classrooms from around the world. I never thought of using Twitter in this fashion, but it seems like a great way to get students from around the globe talking and collaborating. Podcasts I previewed several podcasts, including the ones mentioned above. I really like The Cult of Pedagogy podcast for all things "teacher." She is very knowledgeable with great ideas that sometimes we forget about! She speaks to strategies in the classroom, communication with parents, teacher language, tech tools etc.. Many great ideas and attainable, which is important. I looked for a new podcast for students and found Grammar Girl. I chose this because I teach Language Arts. I began listening and some of it would be useful for fourth graders, so I may use that for a few lessons. I also found a podcast on a word of the day by Webster's Dictionary, I really liked this because my students really need to expand their vocabulary. I just wish I could find one that focused on 4th grade. I may incorporate the vocabulary podcast into our writing and have the students use the new words they learned in writing their essay. These podcasts can be used in the classroom in many ways as stated before and definitely used for supporting students with different learning needs. The beauty of these podcasts is that students can listen to them again and again. This lets those students get the extra repetition they need. The podcast I created is for my writing class. I then posted it to their One Note account so they can refer to it when needed. I am going to try and keep up with weekly podcasts on writing and see if this may help some of them. They really were excited about it and want me to teach them how to create a podcast. Little did they know, I was going to do that anyway! I can really see how using and creating podcast engages the student in being a creative, collaborative and critical thinker, teaching them important communication skills. References: Bradbury, Jeffrey. (2018, July) Why We Should Podcast With Students? Learning through SAMR, Bloom's and the 4 C's. Miller, Samatha. (2017) 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom. Tech assessment tools are becoming more and more commonplace in education and teachers need training on how to use them effectively. I have used all of the assessment tools in the module and feel they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Although, it would be nice to have training from an expert on each tool to show what it can potentially do and how to best use that specific tool in the classroom. As educators, we don't always have the time to fully educate ourselves on new tech tools that come down the line. Therefore, we use the ones that are easily adapted. With that being said, my favorites are Quizziz and Kahoot for ease of use and engagement factor for students. My favorite for assessing is Edpuzzle, I like Edpuzzle because it can target specific skills the student needs, but this tool requires teachers to choose the content video and then plug in questions to target the skill. More work for the teacher, but beneficial for the student. In the article by Joe Hirsch, "100 Videos and Counting: Lessons from a Flipped Classroom," Hirsch mentioned a similar tech tool Educanon which is a learning platform where you can deliver material to students and track their progress. This is another great assessment tool for teachers and seems very easy to use. It also contains premade videos by other teachers, which makes it easily adaptable.
Tech tools can be used effectively in the classroom in many ways, one way is to use these tools as a pre-assessment to see what students already know. You can also use them as a quick formative assessment to see where students are at and what they are still struggling with as a daily "ticket out the door." Then use these "tickets out the door, " to create groups for the next day. They could also be used as the students' final assessment in a unit. Tech tools can also be used as a type of remediation if a student is just not getting the concept and needs more practice. My favorite way to use these tools is for extending learning. Since these tools are free, students can create their own account and then create their own tool for assessing and show what they know. We use what they created in the classroom, so the students really try to make the questions at a high level to challenge their peers. Since students are creating these, they must know the material well. After these assessments, make sure students are reflecting and asking themselves what are my next steps? Tips for this are mentioned in the Common Sense article, "Make Formative Assessment More Student Centered." All of these options are great if you have one to one devices, but what if you don't? Here is a great article about choices of tech tools and how to use them from Edutopia. SCREENCASTING I used Screen-O-Matic and felt it was easy to use but not user-friendly unless you have the premium version. I had to redo mine several times as it would not let me go back to a specific part and start from that point. But overall, it was easily adapted without much of a learning curve. I currently let my students use Screen-O-Matic in class as an extension to their learning by having them create a video screencast showing their knowledge of the content. They also create videos with questions to share with peers to test their peers' knowledge as well. You could use this as a blended learning approach by creating the videos ahead of time for students to preview material, or preview it in class while the teacher is working with individuals or small group to help struggling students. References: Hirsch, Joe (2015, October 19). 100 Videos and Counting : Lessons from a Flipped Classroom. Retrieved from: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/100-videos-lessons-flipped-classroom-joe-hirsch Edutopia (2007, November, 5). How to Integrate Technology. Retrieved from: https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation CommonSense. Make Student Assessment More Student-Centered. Retrieved from: https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/tlr-asset/document-twt-cheat-sheet-checks-for-understanding-081916.pdf Alan November couldn't be more correct. Who does own the learning? With technology in abundance and overly confident students using it, educators need to re-balance control of the learning and create a culture where students have assignments that are engaging and worth while. Not just ones they can google the answer to. Educators need to redesign assignments from previous years and let students design their own questions and guide them in their journey. Many Web 2.0 tools can help educators create assignments for students that are engaging, and I am very interested in learning more about podcasting and tools that support collaboration. I am familiar with podcasts, but not quite sure how to utilize them in the classroom. I would love to learn about different ways students can collaborate. I love it when my students collaborate to create a product, they are actively talking and thinking about the topic at hand and in the end, engaged. What ways do you have your students collaborate? Please share your colossal collaborations. Web 2.0 tools have changed educators professional practice by giving way to different means of presentation of material and how the students actively participate in their learning. Many of these tools can be used to pre-assess, assess or just introduce students to a new topic. The 4 C's for 21st Century Learning are a good guide to follow when thinking of the "process" of learning, making sure the learning is creative, collaborative, the students are using critical thinking skills and communicating. What is your favorite tool to use in the classroom? I feel Web 2.0 tools create a learning curve not only for the students but also for the teachers as well. Both groups need to differentiate between the entertainment factor and actual learning and determine which tools deserve to be present in the classroom. UDL Guidelines are a good start to evaluating Web 2.0 tools. Although, the right Web 2.0 tools can be beneficial with those to diverse learning needs in several ways. There are currently speech tools, assistive technology, and many learning adaptive software that can support students with diverse learning needs. References: youtu.be/Yerxm-BUwnI udlguidelines.cast.org |
Shelly WoodsLearn-a-holic, lover of books, dogs and travel. :) Welcome to my blog. Archives
April 2019
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