Name of Activity/ Lesson
|
Target Grade Level
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Task
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Interview
|
All Grades (grade level will just determine support and detail into the assignment)
|
Students will be asked to interview someone. Based on what your studying you may ask students to interview an elder, grandparent, historian, athlete, idol etc. Once students pick who they are going to interview students will use a audio recording program such as; Chirbit, KidCast.com, Yodio or VoiceThread. VoiceThread or Yodio may be good for the older students as they can add audio to pictures and make it more as a presentation. It may be a good idea for students to prepare questions before doing their interview for a guide.
|
Read to Assess
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All Grades
|
Teachers may want to record students reading for many reasons. Firstly, the teacher can use it for assessment and parent teacher interviews. Next, the students then can hear themselves reading which is a good way for them to reflect on their progress. And lastly, many new teachers may find it beneficial when doing running records. If the teacher records the student reading they will be able to go back to it for filling out the running record to make sure they did not miss anything.
|
Audio Notes
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All Grades
|
Teachers can record their notes for the day for multiple reasons. Teachers can audio record their notes for students with special needs; such as visual and attention difficulty. Students with visual needs would be able to listen to the recording in order to learn the lesson and may be able to use the recording to write their own notes at their own pace. Students with attention difficulty can listen to the notes at their own pace and maybe in another area where there is less distractions. Also, all students could benefit from the recorded notes if they were accessible on a class blog for when the students are at home working on homework and studying.
|
Field Trip Recording
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All Grades
|
Have students bring a recording device with them on a field trip. SInce they would most likely be not able to access wifi the entire time they may need to use an offline recording device. Students can record what they are being taught on the field trip for notes. Another student could be taking pictures throughout the day. Following the field trip students can collaborate their findings to make a audio visual presentation with sliderocket or prezi.
|
Audio Tour of School
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Junior, Intermediate and High School
|
Have students make an audio tour of the school that can be recorded and replayed for people coming to see the school. This may be a good task for high school students in a technology class to allow the school to use for when the upcoming grade 9’s come to visit the school with their parents.
|
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
Audio Creations
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Podcasting and Audio Tools For the Classroom
In order for teachers to remain relevant and current in their classroom they must continue to embrace new tools and resources that enable them to provide dynamic and meaningful lessons. With the emergence of the the Web 2.0 and the shift towards a 21st Century approach to teaching teachers must remain up to date on the newest trends in teaching. While I admit that not all new tech trends will lend themselves to the classroom I believe that Podcasting and other audio tools create a unique chance for teachers to engage students and make them active participants in their own education. The following are 5 classroom activities that incorporate Podcasting and other audio tools into your daily teaching routine:
- One way to incorporate Podcasting into a classroom activity is to have student create a fictional commercial aimed at attracting immigrants to settle in their particular city. The students could use existing photos or videos of their city or use photos or videos that they have shot, and pair this with an audio description of why their city of town would be a good place for an immigrant to settle. We believe that this activity would work best with grades 7-8.
- For teachers who are interested in integrating a more blended approach to learning they could record lesson instructions audioally and upload these instructions to a class Edmodo page or Facebook page. Furthermore, the teacher could also differentiate this lesson by providing different audio instructions for students that need accommodations and simply send them these instructions as a private message. This is also a great way to keep parents involved because they can listen to the instructions with their child and assist them if they need any. Furthermore, by recording the instructions and uploading them to a Facebook or Edmodo page, students who absent from school can still complete the assignment because they can access the instructions from anywhere.
- When traveling on a field trip students can use an Ipod, tablet or other digital recording device to take audio notes and a digital camera to take pictures. At school the next day, students can slide show software such as Powerpoint or Sliderocket to create a slideshow that acts as a guided tour of the trip. Students can then upload their slideshow to Slideshare for others to access.This is a fun and novel way for students to demonstrate what they learned on the trip, while at the same time giving the teacher feedback on the merits of the trip.This activity would be useful for students from grade 5 and up.
- Record students reading a story in a group. Each student can have a different role. Would be good for younger grades to practice reading skills and then be able to hear their voice reading the story. Older grades could do a similar activity and focus on manipulating their voices to display punctuation and emotion. Even older grades can write their own story, record it and use a program like imovie or other video editing software to create a digital animation to accompany their video.
- When teaching students how to write for a specific audience the teacher could have them write a children’s story. They could then record the story using a digital recording device and then make a short movie using iMovie or other video editing software that pairs their audio recording with digital characters.
Authored by: Jon
Saturday, 21 February 2015
Google Apps vs. Microsoft Office Online
In this post we both looked at Google Apps as well as Microsoft Office Online and compared the merits of both of these programs. Below we have provided a chart that outlines both the unique and shared features of each of these cloud based applications. While some of the information below are our own observations we also included information from TechRepublic US and Infoworld. For a more in depth review of the applications we encourage readers to check out the links above.
Google Apps
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Both
|
Microsoft Office Online
|
|
|
|
There are obviously various pros and cons to each application and we feel that there was no clear cut winner for someone looking to use these applications at a basic level. In the end it would come down to a preference for operating systems that we think would make the biggest difference when choosing which application to use.
Authored by: Emily and Jon
6 Great Tools and Resources for Increasing Student Engagement
The first educational resource that we are reviewing is called Edmodo. Edmodo is a social learning website that attempts to connect teachers, students and parents from around the world in a safe and collaborative platform. The creators of the website envision this resource as the Facebook for schools. Similar to Facebook this tools requires user to register a username, which allows them access to the various resource available on the site. What we thought was particularly useful about this website is that is allows the classroom teacher a create class page, that students and parents can join, in the same way they would join a Facebook group. What we really liked about the idea of a group dedicated to a classroom is that the website allows users to post comments or link interesting or helpful articles to the page for the other users to view. The teacher also has the ability to create and upload assignments or quizzes to the page for students to complete. This is a great function for a teacher who is interested in creating a blended classroom, as it allows students to access assignments from remote locations and upload their completed work to the page. The group page is also a great way to keep parents informed on what is happening in the class because teachers or students can easily communicate about what happened in class that day or any upcoming events events that may be pertinent to them.
The website also has a “Discover” option which we thought of as Pinterest for education. Users from around the globe can upload lessons or units on any subject and topic and have them available for other users to use. Teachers and students can also upload these resources to the group page for other members of the group to browse.
VoiceThread
Another great Web 2.0 tool that gets students involved in the learning process and makes them active participants in their education is VoiceThread. VoiceThread is an interactive collaborative website that allows users to upload images, videos or text documents. Although there are other websites with based on a similar concept, what we thought made VoiceThread unique was its ability to allow other users to comment on or add voice, text or audio to previously uploaded content. In a similar review of this tool the New Jersey Education association noted that VoiceThread is a great way for students with hearing impairment to comment using sign language and webcam commenting. The other great thing about VoiceThread is that the sites allows the users to control who is able to view their videos, so students using this tool for a class project can choose to share their work with just their classmates if they do not feel comfortable making their video completely public.
Here are some great examples of how VoiceThread is being used in classrooms around the world. http://ed.voicethread.com/myvoice/#browse
Bubbl.us
Bubbl.us is a Web 2.0 tool that allows its users to create brainstorming and mind mapping diagrams right on the website. We think this tool would be very useful in a classroom to help students organize their thoughts. Furthermore, it also provides the teacher with a simple visual that allows them to determine if students are on the right path prior to undertaking a research project. For example, using the Bubbl.us mind map below, a teacher could determine if a student has included all of the important information for research into Thanksgiving before he or she actually starts the project, and if something is committed it can easily be edited into the mind map.
This Image was borrowed from: http://www.teachers.cr.k12.de.us/%7Egalgano/bubblus_ex.jpg
There are however, a few downsides to this tool. The first is that users are only able to create 3 free mind maps and after that must pay for either a monthly, yearly or team membership. Because of this, we feel that Bubbl.us is not very piratical for daily use in a classroom unless your school or distrcit has purchased a team membership. Another disadvantage is that there are no privacy controls to allow users to restrict who is able to view their mind maps. Once it is posted anyone can search and view your mind map. Thus, it would be important to ensure students did not include any personal information when posting their map.
Prezi
Prezi is a fun web 2.0 tool to do presentations. We see it as fun, yer professional way of creating great presentations. Emily has used this tool in university for presentations and she has enjoyed the things it has to offer. Prezi is a cloud-based program which makes it handy for users as they can log onto their website anywhere, anytime and work on their presentation. Prezi makes presentations more exciting and the ability to zoom in and out on objects is neat as you can emphasize certain things. Prezi also allows viewers to see the presentation which is nice because you can see the whole picture of the story. Below is a quick introduction video to the world of Prezi.
Blabberize
The fifth web 2.0 tool we looked at and test was Blabberize. Emily made an account to look at a little deeper and had a fun time with it. With Blabberize you can take your saved photos and put a voice to through the mic on your computer, prerecorded voices or through your phone. The tool was easy to use and we think would be appealing to many students. From a early years perspective, teachers could use this when using photos for documentation and have the students put a voice to it to give the photo a story. Teachers could either teach students how to use it or they could do the recording with the students and the student could explain what is happening in the photo. This could be a form of assessment. Teachers and Parents can become friends on Blabberize and share their students work or they teacher can pull up the photos during parent teacher interviews. I think parents and teachers will benefit from hearing the students’ stories behind each photo.
Storybird
Lastly, we looked at Storybird. We both love this web 2.0 tool as it allows students to put their writing into a digital book with pictures. As kids we both remember being asked to write stories but rarely having the opportunity of putting images to it. With Storybird students are able to publish their writing with attractive pictures to go along with it. We think by making the students aware that they get to publish their work gives them an incentive to work harder and keep their interest sustained, while completing an assignment. Once students become aware of the program it may encourage more writing in students. For Jon last year he used this tool in his class to make a story as an entire class. They were all excited to participate in the activity and see their work. For one of his students he enjoyed it so much he had his parents sign him up for the program at home to make more stories on his own.
Authored by Emily and Jon
Friday, 6 February 2015
Models of Blended Learning
Blended learning in the Primary level looks a lot different than what it might look like at an Intermediate or Senior level. At this level there is a much greater emphasis placed on a model of blended learning that centres around a teacher guided approach. Blended learning in the primary grades might be having classroom centres, that the students move through, and one of the centres being technology based. In the world of blended learning this is what is known as the rotation model.
Example 1:
In my class last year we used centres to teach math and one of the centres that the students rotated through was an Ipad centre. With the help and guidance of my TA students would play math based games on the Ipad that reinforced the concepts we were working on in that particular unit. I believe that this enhances the learning of the students because it gives them a fun and engaging way to practice the concepts that we were learning in class and allowed them to strengthen their math skills in a new and novel way. I also really liked using the Ipads because the students were able to play games that were at their level of understanding. That is why the classroom TA was placed at this station, so that she could monitor the students, assist them with any questions and ensure that they were playing games that challenged their current levels of understanding.
Example 2:
In my class last year my Junior Kindergarten Students had opportunity to connect with students in Ontario through Skype. The students were exposed to another culture through the internet. Since all my students are First Nation and most do not leave the community often or at all they were able to see and connect with people who live differently than them. Along with Skyping we sent pictures of our community. This experience I believe was eye opening and exciting for both parties as they both had so much to share.
Junior
Example 1:
Through reading various articles about blended learning I came across a website that I think is a fantastic way to encourage reading comprehension. I had never heard of this website before this, but I truly believe that this is an amazing way to motivate students to become more proficient readers and writers. Furthermore, it allows the teacher to demonstrate to his/her students the global connectedness the Internet bring us and a good teaching moment to demonstrate safe sharing of information on the Internet.
The website is called The Monster Exchange. The following description of this program is taken directly from this website:
“Monster Exchange is designed to encourage the development of reading and writing skills while integrating Internet technology into the classroom curriculum. Classrooms from a variety of schools worldwide are paired together; the students in each classroom are split into groups, each of which designs an original picture of a monster. The students must then write a description of the monster. The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via e-mail and the Internet. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture. The true challenge involves creating a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster.”
Although this website is appropriate for grades K-8 I think it would work best in conjunction with a descriptive writing lesson for grade 5. I think that a lesson that used the Monster Exchange to teach descriptive writing would truly enhance the learning experience because, not only would the students be really motivated to and intrigued by this lesson, it would also motivate them to really put a lot of effort into their description so that they could ensure that the person who is reading the description on the website is able to produce a monster that is similar to theirs.
Example 2:
Another example might be using a site like glogster. The teacher could put the information needed to learn a specific lesson and then the students can explore the Glog to learn. I used glogster in my grade 5/ 6 practicum class to teach about the Canadian Government. The students went on the Glog and I had a worksheet for them to fill out as they explored the Glog. The glog seemed engaging as it had videos, tests and articles for them to read. I used the worksheet to keep the students on task and give them a guide for their learning. Do you know any other suitable ways to test the students knowledge while exploring the Glog?
Here is a link to the Glog: http://ezwier.edu.glogster.com/canadian-government-grade-5-6/
Intermediate
At this stage of their learning the students have more independence and can be expected-if they chose to- to complete work with little face to face interaction with a teacher and outside the confines of a brick and mortar campus.
Example 1:
A website called the “Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation” details many examples of blended learning from all across the United States ranging from the K-12 classroom. One good example of blended learning, detailed on this website, at the intermediate level comes from the Albuquerque eCADEMY. The following is a description of this program takes from the website:
“At the Albuquerque eCADEMY, students in grades 8–12 meet face-to-face with teachers for their first course meeting at a brick-and mortar location. They can complete the rest of their coursework remotely, if they prefer, as long as they maintain at least a “C” grade point average in the program.”
What is good about this approach is that: first it offers the students the option of either completing the course at the brick-and mortar campus or from a remote location off campus. This is useful because it allows the students who may be struggling the option of working, face-to-face with a teacher to give them further guidance Second, the condition that they can continue the course from a remote location if they maintain a “C” average because it acts as a safety net. Before a student has fallen too far behind to catch up, this condition ensures that are being monitored and will be given the proper support if they struggle.
I think this enhances the learning experiences because it offers students the independence to go about the course work at their own pace and the freedom to do it whenever they want. I also think this model offers a good balance and gives students who may not prefer an online course the option of a traditional means of instruction.
Although we do like this approach, there are several questions that we have. First, is the course fluid in terms of the delivery method? By this we mean that can students alternate between taking the course online and in the classroom or are they forced to stick with their choice unless they are struggling. Second, is the course that is offered at the brick-and mortar location still based on computers, with the teacher supervising them or is it more like a traditional classroom with the teacher delivering lessons and the students using pencil and paper methods?
Example 2:
At the Intermediate age the students are becoming more independent and becoming responsible for their learning. They soon will be moving onto University or College where they will have full responsibility for their learning. Since this is the case the teacher is trying to get the students to start exploring and researching on their own. A way that they could do this through blended learning is giving the students a Math Topic. Then ask them to use the computer to find out how to do perform the appropriate operations. The teacher could lead the students to a site such as Khan Academy to assist with the assignment. After giving time for research the students could come back and present what they learned about the topic.
By having the students present their understanding the teacher can make the appropriate adjustments to where they should begin their teaching. If the students seem to grasp the concept well s/he can move onto a more difficult task. Or if s/he only see’s some students struggling she can make sure s/he puts the appropriate accommodations into her lessons.
A Review of 6 Great Education Blogs
The
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
The first educator blog
that we are commenting on is the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. This blog is written and updated by a women named Vicki
Davis, who is a teacher, IT director and co-founder of the Flat Classroom Project(s). Her blog is dedicated to providing teachers with “inspirational, innovative content that you can use to
stay motivated in your personal and professional life.”
This website fully embraces the idea
of 21st Century teaching, with a greater emphasis being placed on the
integration of technology into instruction. There are literally hundreds
of posts detailing effective ways to incorporate technology into teaching,
various tools and websites that make online learning fun and engaging, and an
entire section about digital citizenship and the responsibilities of both
educators and students in regards to safe use of the Internet. What we
really liked about this website was that she provides a daily post dedicated to
education and technology news for schools. After looking through several
of these posts we discovered a lot of great resources that teachers can find on
the Internet to help develop an effective blended learning classroom.
Her professional Twitter
account is: @coolcatteacher
The Link to the Creative
Commons Liscence for this website is: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Always
Learning
The second educator’s
blog that we are commenting on is called “Always
Learning: teaching technology abroad.” This blog is maintained by a teacher named Kim Cofino.
Kim describes her blog as “a place to reflect on my teaching and learning
as a Technology and Learning Coach in international schools.
What is unique about this blog is that Ms. Cofino shares
her experiences in education that she has acquired from her multiple years of
teaching in International Schools all around the globe. What we really
liked about this blog is that it demonstrated the universality of technology.
By this we mean that whether she was teaching in Europe or Asia Ms.
Cofino was able to seamlessly integrate technology into an engaging and
responsible 21st Century classroom. Throughout her various posts
about her experiences with technology, she details a vast array of useful Apps
to help students. One of these Apps allowed the user to handwrite or
print sentences, on an Ipad, in their native language and have is translated to
another language. We think this would be a great tool to have in a
classroom to help ELL students become more proficient with the English
Her professional Twitter
account is: @mscofino.
The link to the Creative
Commons Liscence for this blog is: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
High Techpectations
The next blog that we
are commenting on is entitled “High Techpectations: ideas and resources for modern educators.” This blog is written and maintained by a
woman named Lucy Gray. She is a former teacher and now a technology and
educational consultant. She is the founder of the Global Education
Collaborative, which, as she describes, is a “network
for educators interested in connections, collaboration and project-based
learning.”
Similar to the other blogs that we
have commented on, High Techpectations has hundreads of posts related to the
field of educational technology and the usefulness of the Web 2.0 is a 21st
Century learning environment. What we really like about this blog is that
many of her posts seemed to be written for an individual who is not very
familiar with many Web 2.0 tools, specifically in relation to education.
For example one of the tag clouds, on the blog, is Web 2.0. Under this category she provides, detailed
yet simple instruction of the various Social Media tools that are available to
educators and how they can be incorporated into your classroom. We think
this is very helpful for teachers who are just beginning to make the transition
from a traditional learning environment to a more blended one.
Her
Twitter page is @elemnous and the link to the Creative
Commons license for her blog is: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
The
Open Classroom
The “The Open Classroom”
blog was written by an educator who started her career out as a science teacher
and then went back to go school to become a English and Literature Teacher
which got her involved in blogs and Web 2.0 tools. When exploring “The Open Classroom”
I came across a post on Effective 1:1 Programs. We were unaware of what the program was so we
read the post and then looked at the links posted on the program. The program
is basically for students to have their own laptops another name for the
program is “anywhere, anytime”. We liked that name as it describes basically
that the students are able to learn and study with their laptops all the time.
By giving the students a laptop they become independent and self-initiating in
their learning. We can see how this program can be beneficial for the students
as their learning can become individualized and they can progress their work at
their own pace. We can also see a con for this program is the cost and training
for the teacher. Personally we don’t know if we would feel comfortable to have
a classroom basically do the majority of their work on a personal device. Also,
there is the cost of the device, programming/ software and maintenance. With
these cost the program may be limiting to only certain demographics.
Her
Twitter page is @jomcleay and the link to the Creative
Commons license for her blog is:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Moving
at the Speed of Creativity
We started looking at
this blog and we couldn’t stop looking at all the posts. The first thing we looked
at was the “Cool iPad Art & STEAM Apps & Hacks” post. There was a App that is mentioned called
Singing Fingers and a video to demonstrate it. The video showed how you could
paint a picture and then put sounds to go along with it. We are definitely
going to be putting this on my ipads as it seems like a fun way to make music
and play with sounds. This App we think allows for the students to get creative
and is engaging for all age levels. Wesley Fryer the author of “Moving at the
Speed of Creativity” we think provides educators with many helpful tools and
ideas for the use of technology in the classroom.
His
Twitter page is @wfryer and the link to the Creative
Commons license for her blog is:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Name: This Week in
Education
This
Week in Education
We liked the idea behind
Alexander Russo’s blog “This Week in Education” as it keeps the teacher informed about
everything in the news about what's happening in regards to education. However,
this site is based on news in Education in the United States and not Canada so
it isn’t relevant to us. If anyone knows of a similar Blog that looks at the
News in Education in Canada please share with us.
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Delicious: A Low Calorie Treat for Students and Teachers
Prior to beginning this assignment I had never heard of Delicious or any other websites of this kind. I initially had a little bit of difficulty in trying to understand just what exactly the purpose of this website was or really how it worked. It took me a little longer than I imagined it would to fully understand what the purpose of the website was and how to properly navigate, however, once I did grasp these concepts the educational value of such a tool became very obvious very quickly. If you don’t have the time or patience to explore teach yourself how to use this website, the Youtube video below provides a quick and concise overview of Delicious basics.
Just by looking at the home page students are directed to a litany of links that span a wide variety of subject areas. There is almost certainly a link to an article that viewers will be interested in. The only thing that I did not like about the initial home page is that there wasn’t a scroll through list of articles. I wish that there was a longer list of articles to look through, although I guess the point of the homepage is to provide a snapshot of what is trending today and not from days or weeks before.
One obvious way that Delicious can be used in a classroom setting is to use it as a basic search engine. The user can search a vast array of resources and web pages that are currently relevant to their area of interest. For example, I used Delicious’ search function to search for articles that explained how ways to use Delicious in a classroom. Based on what I read in the articles that were tagged “Delicious, Education” I discovered that some teachers use this tool to create a database of websites that are useful for a particular course. One of these articles suggested creating a Bundle dedicated to a course, Spanish for example, and having students link articles, to this Bundle, using a very specific and universal tag that are related to what they are learning in that class. Delicious is also a great way for students to store and organize information that is relevant to something they are currently working on. In the same article linked before, the author suggests that students writing a research paper could create a tag that keeps all the websites with the pertinent information in one easily accessible place. Furthermore, with the comment section the user can write a short note on what exactly the website is about and how it relates to their paper or project.
I also found Delicious to be a great way to search blogs related to 21st Century teaching. While someone could certainly use Google to find these same blogs just as quick and easily Delicious allows you to store them in one, organized space for quick reference later on and it allows you to keep comments regarding why you bookmarked that page in the first place. I also really like the tag function. Although this is not something new or specific to Delicious, I found it to be a useful tool to use to branch off and explore multiple websites related to creating a 21st Century classroom.
Authored by: Jon
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