Flattening My World

Julie Lindsay gave an amazing 2 day workshop in St. Louis on Flat Classrooms. She allowed me the opportunity to attend as a virtual participant. Live video streaming through Ustream and a Backchannel chat through Chatsy, provided a feeling of actually being there. I was able to collaborate with a team on a Flat Classroom project idea and made a few connections with elementary teachers for later projects in my own classroom. I am in awe of the possibilities for connecting classrooms and the motivating learning experiences it can allow. Not only have I flattened my own world through my PLN (professional learning network), Diigo, and Web 2.0 tools, but I am so excited to provide such experiences for my students. Global learning and collaboration is at our fingers tips and all we have to do is reach out and grab it!


Photo: http://makingmaps.net/

Blooming Technology

Photo: http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/blooms-taxonomy-amp-web-20

Eight or nine years ago, when I was pursuing my teaching degree we discussed and went over the importance of Bloom's Taxonomy. Yada yadaaa yadaaa, was what it kind of sounded like coming from the professors at the time. Today, there is a whole new perspective with the integration of technology and more importantly Web 2.0 tools and applications. It is very interesting to see the ways that these tools can be using in assessing different levels of Bloom's. The picture gives a great visual and could be very helpful when presenting tools to other educators.

Mom Madness

Photo: www.tweedlehop.com


As I traveled across town this evening to meet a friend for dinner, I was fretting about all the other things I could or should be doing this evening. Still, I ventured over to a little Mexican spot for some delicious dinner. Upon returning to my cubical of a dorm room, I broke out my laptop and sat it down in front of me... What to start on first: Updating/finish creating my PLN (personal learning network), RWLD (readings, watchings, learnings, doings), work on a project, read and respond to blogs... decided upon writing my own blog post of thoughts from today.

The last month or so I have felt so completely overwhelmed by the ending of my school year and all the wonderful things that go along with that, my daughters softball games, my nephews soccer & baseball games, cooking, cleaning, finishing a privacy fence and landscaping in the yard, running, working a second job, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and taking two graduate classes. I have to say that it has really been kind of wonderful to be up here on campus and be able to focus a one of these responsibilities whole-heartedly. The information that is being presented and explored throughout this class is astounding, I love it! I'm really thinking..."if we are being exposed to this much knowledge in the first class of this program, by the time I am done in two years I'm going to be soooooo intelligent!!" You might think this sounds silly, but I really thought I knew a lot about technology before I came here. Wow... so much more to learn and I can't wait for it to be pounded into my brain. I don't know that my brain can even hold all the information available but Dr. Z provided me with an article link about increasing brain power and its rather interesting. I think I might just try some of the suggestions.

My New Second Life

I created a new life during our 2nd day of Emerging Instructional Technology. We explored the world of Second Life for a few hours and wow... I love the shopping and dancing! No, but seriously this virtual world is absolutely amazing. We created an avatar for ourselves and took a tour of Iowa Island. There are so many things that you can that you can do in this world. I don't see the relevence for elementary education, but Sara's Sighs posted several other virtual worlds to take a look at. Even though I don't really see any applications for my 3rd grade classroom, I have an understanding of how it could be used in upper education or business. I'm wondering though if people would choose another avenue such a Adobe Connect or Skype for distance meetings and such. Personally, I really didn't want to get too enthralled in this virtual world. I can see myself getting addicted and spending too much time in my Second Life and not enough time in my REAL life.

EMERGING Technology

Our first day on campus was pretty interesting... I arrived Sunday evening and checked into my dorm room. Bare necessities to say the least. I never experienced dorm life before so this is a first for me. Dinner that evening with some of my classmates was lovely, but as I returned to my room I noticed someone else's things. I have a roommate? I did not request a roommate! Huh? Well... due to a mistake in the office I spent my first evening with a stranger, but whatever, it was fine. Mistake was fixed Monday morning.

Class was great! Information overload... good stuff! We got our computers registered for campus internet, explored some great tools and even Skyped with the Cool Cat Teacher, Vicki Davis. Awesome! I started on an interesting little project with my group and was off for what I thought was going to be an evening of (a little shopping) and catching up on RWLD's. Evidently, the internets Gods had something else in mind. The dorms are evidently still EMERGING on the whole technology thing. Sunday night we could not get online, because we did not have an ethernet cord and no wireless. Monday night, we just couldn't get on. Frustration! After about 40 minutes of trying... I gave up the quest for online information for the evening. I came up to this wonderful place to EXPAND my knowledge of technology and I feel like I stepped back 10 years. How ironic! Hopefully we can EMERGE a bit faster!

Time vs. Trouble

www.bing.com/images

As educators we face numerous responsibilities. We are not just teachers. Our positions also require us to be secretaries, record keepers, counselors, curriculum creators, coaches, referees, nurses, students, organizers, janitors, entertainers, etc. etc. etc. When we look into finding, adopting, and using technology in our classrooms, we want, no.... we need, something efficient and effective. Some may be interested in integrating technology, but because of time restraints we hesitate. I would love to have the time and resources to create endless technology experiences for my students. Reality naturally forces us to collaborate with others to make this happen. There are many resourceful sites that are available to teachers for just this purpose. I am so excited for the adventure that the Instructional Technology cohort is taking me on. I hope to share with my collegues the interesting ideas I gain throughout the process, as well as encourage them to dive deeper into the world of technology.

Here are some resources I have found useful. Take a look and let me know what you think.

http://classroomtech.org/

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/

http://www.techlearning.com/

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/teach.jsp

Voicethread Heard!

My experience with Voicethread the other evening was great. Voicethread is tool to post videos or photos and allow others to make comments by text, audio, or video. I was able to set up an identity and view the video posted by my professor. At first, we had problems viewing and listening to other people's comments but a quick search in the help forums and I was able to figure out that it was just a matter of changing the settings. Leaving a comment was straight forward and simple.

I can see several uses for this in my classroom. The Every Child Reads - PWIM or Picture Word Inductive Model would lend very nicely to voicethread. I could post a picture, usually related to a topic in class and students could leave their comment about the picture. They could comment about their feelings, words they see, content related ideas they think of. They could leave a text comment, creating sentences or paragraphs relating to the picture. Another use would be video clips or virtual field trips videos. The students could once again, leave their comments through audio or video and also leave text comments with sentence or paragraph creation. The teacher or students could also post their own picture and start a narrative about it and then other students could continue with the next sentence of the story and so on or the student could tell their own full story using the picture. The only problem holding me back from using this completelyat this point is that our computers are not equipped with microphones or webcams. This is something I will definifetly be bringing up to tech at school.


What are some uses for voicethread in your classrooms???


Photo: http://sillitutorial.com/voicethread_tutorial/

You can't be my teacher!!

Youtube video by: Darren Cannell

Are We Ready? Ready Or Not!

I googled "Web 2.0 elementary classroom" today and was pleased to find many sites that contained numerous resources for using Web 2.o tools in an elementary setting. After school, I walked across the hall to one of my fellow 3rd grade teacher's classroom and asked her if she was ready. She asked, "Ready for what?" I replied, "To blog, wiki, use voicethread, etc, etc, next year?" She said she was going to throw up, but then quickly responded... "I'll do it if you show me how." Now, this is someone who has been teaching for quite sometime and who commonly calls me, her computer geek. She is a very smart, master educator who flinches at the mere thought of technology. I simply told her we're all going to have to. It's what the world is coming to. It where our differentiation is going to have to come. Some of the kids already know these things and those who don't are going to need to. Therefore, we need to know as well! In a short chat with Professor Zeitz this evening, he directed me to http://thinkleadserve.wikispaces.com/ where I found the youtube video above and I can't wait to share it.

Sensing a bit of Frustration...

I was good with Facebook. But now that I've added Twitter, Blogging, Wiki, etc, I feel like I should be updating and providing my thoughts in 20 different places.

If I update my Facebook status, do I need to Tweet, blog and wiki the same info... and if so when will I have time to actually do something worth posting about???

Emerging Instructional Tech Video Chat 5/17/10

I was pretty impressed by our video chat on Adobe Connect this evening. I recently purchased a new laptop and this was basically the first time I had used a webcam personally. In the past I've used ICN, of course through college classes. More recently, I have participated in numerous COP (Community of Practice) sessions through the Just Ask science project I am working with through UMSL. This experience was comparable with those. There were a few times when the audio was delayed or choppy but for the most part it went really well for a first time.


The reading in Disrupting Class, or maybe it was Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools, talked about how things were when we were in school, and even though its only been 16 years (oh my, really! That can't be right) since I graduated high school, the advances in technology are amazing. I try telling my 14 year old daughter about this and it sounds like a "I walked 10 miles to school barefoot in the snow" type stories.
My daughter also recieved a new laptop and neither of us had ever used Skype before, just signed up last night. But she got home from softball practice and took her computer up to her room and I video called her and told her she needed to clean her room before getting on the computer. We just laughed and laughed about it. The way communication has changed!!!! Last night she was able to video chat with her brother in Atlanta, GA. I am sooooo looking forward to the video calls I'm going to make to my little nieces in Kentucky. I am so excited about learning all I can about these new technologies and sharing them with as many people around me as possible!