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.

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.

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/

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!