Thing 6: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

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In selecting a webware site from the 2009 Web 2.0 Awards to explore and review I was most interested in looking at a web app that would be most useful to me as a teacher.  Money and music apps are great but not very practical in the classroom.  Search engines and web browsers I felt I knew enough about to use somewhat effectively.  I’ve already explored Google apps, wasn’t that interested in social networking and didn’t see anything about creating a podcast, wiki page, or an eBook.  My number 1 choice of the top 100 is …

. . .YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/

My biggest problem with YouTube for education is that some school systems block access to the site.  I understand there is some content on YouTube that is not appropriate for viewing by a child and had resigned myself to not ever being able to use any of the videos that I had screened and selected in the classroom.  Then I found an add-on for the Firefox browser that allows me to copy a YouTube video to my desktop.  The add-on I am currently playing with is Flash Video Downloader (Youtube Downloader) but there are plenty of others to chose from.  This opened up a whole new world for me.  It has a great search feature and I’ve found several great videos in the past just using the search (as you are typing your search, the search offers up potential video categories just like a Google search because it is owned by Google).  I was trying to build background knowledge for a story I was doing in 5th grade language arts that had rock climbing (about 5,450 videos), whirlpools (about 1,040 videos), and Starved Rock State Park (about 202 videos).  For each video I was given the title of the video, how many minutes each video clip ran, how many times the video clip had been viewed (I normally looked at the most popular first), and how long ago the video had been place on YouTube (1 year ago, 3 years ago, etc.).  A similar search on TeacherTube gave me 14 rock climbing videos, 49 whirlpool videos (unrelated to my needs as they were on the Whirlpool Galaxy), and 0 Starved Rock State Park videos and did not give as much information on the index page, such as how long the video clip lasted, so to find out more information on the video I had to clip on each individual title (which was a lot of time wasted).  I’ve read complaints about some inappropriate advertising and inappropriate videos on the homepage (again, this is why a lot of school systems block access to the site) but as I am previewing the videos and selecting only those I deem appropriate, and with the add-on that downloads the video to my desktop I never worry about the homepage or advertising videos accidentally showing up on my computer (although teachers beware of other things you have on your personal computer or on a portable flash drive.  This an extreme example, and not something a teacher had done but rather something an outside community presenter had brought in for a school wide assembly.)  The major drawback of YouTube is that the site is not appropriate for student use and not something that would be allowed in a school library, but for me as the teacher it’s a great tool.

Thing 5: Web 2.0/School 2.0

 “We can no longer ask our children to live in a world where they are immersed in technology in all parts of their lives except school.  We must rewire education or we risk losing this generation of media-immersed, tech-savvy students.”

“Welcome to the iGeneration!” by Larry Rosen (2010).

For the past year or so I’ve heard the term Web 2.0 tossed around and always thought it meant a faster WWW or maybe an improved WWW.  I am always being encouraged to buy new software or upgrade my existing software to the “new and improve 2.0 version” (3.0, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, etc.).  A recent tutorial video from Atomic Learning, entitled “What is Web 2.0?” helped clear up some of my misconceptions about the term.  Web 1.0 refers to the “Read Only Web” where the web was used primarily to store information and consumers used the web to find information on just about anything.   Basically the web of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  Web 2.0 refers to the web as a “Read/Write” tool, where you are still able to find information on the web (read) but now literally anyone can put something on the web (write) for the whole world to see, view, listen to or watch.  Now we have blogs, podcasts, Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc where anyone, anywhere, and any age can post something to the web.

School 2.0 refers to using this new, more social technology, of Web 2.0 in school.  I found a great quote in an article entitled “Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators” by Susan McLester (2007) “for education not to step up and maximize these resources for teaching, learning, and driving innovation is to risk becoming marginalized as a viable influence in helping to shape the 21st century” (para. 5).  Schools need to teach the skills that the job market of tomorrow requires.  I grew up believing that the purpose of education was to equip our students with the necessary skills and knowledge to become productive members of society.  If this is the case, it is imperative upon us the teachers to use Web 2.0 in the classroom.  In a book I read this summer entitled Redefining Literacy 2.0 by David Warlick, he quotes a researcher that states that something like 90% of the jobs that the children entering 1st grade today will have upon graduation, haven’t even been created yet (jobs in internet security and such).  We increasing need to use the tools of technology that our students will be increasingly using in the job market of tomorrow, and in many cases are already using outside the classroom today.  O'Brien and Scharber (2010) have an interesting perspective that the greatest challenge to introducing technology into the classroom is with teacher, in an article they wrote “Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: The Luxury of Digital Abundance.”

“In the 21st century, literacy involves not just reading and comprehending the text in front of you.  It now includes a range of skills to find, navigate, access, decode, evaluate, and organize the information from a globally networked landscape.  Almost all of the information that our students use in their future will be viewed with some type of information device (a computer), and it will come from a global electronic library that will be vast, largely unorganized and unmanaged, and produced from a bewildering variety of perspectives.  If all our children learn to do is read, they will not be literate.” (p 18-19)

RedefiningLiteracy 2.0. by David Warlick (2010).

Thing 4: Commenting is Important

Commenting on a blog helps create a sense of community and interaction because blogging can connect you to people and topics that are important to you.  In the World Wide Web universe there is a lot of information out there, an unfathomable amount, but that information is often full of the cold hard facts, devoid of feeling and emotion.  Blogging allows you to make an emotional connection with people.   You connect with people that are passionate (passionate enough to express their thoughts and feelings) about the same things you are.  Vicki A. Davis on her “Cool Cat Teacher” blog makes a similar comment when she notes, “you become a part of the life of the blogger you read.”

Several bloggers talk about the positive feeling they receive from blogging.  Vicki A. Davis on her “Cool Cat Teacher” comments that “encourage her,” and quotes a third grader that wrote “and when somebody sends me a comment I just get happy and send a comment back to him or her.”   Doug Johnson at the ‘Blue Skunk Blog” writes that every blogger likes to know that they are being read otherwise “they'd be writing in a spiral notebook.”  To write something and then have someone take the time to read and make a positive comment makes you want to write more.  What a great way to motivate children to write (positive feedback) and engage them in reading (by reading others blogs).

Blogging is a great interactive tool that promotes higher order thinking.  We talk all the time about in education about open-ended questioning (asking questions without clear cut right and wrong answers).  Darren Rowse at ProBlogger talks about being opened ended when blogging as a way to get people to respond, the same thing we as teachers do to promote higher order thinking.

Blogs I have selected to follow all have something to do with areas of educational interest I have in reading, brain based learning and in technology in the classroom.

(1) Free Technology for Teachers

(2) 2 cents Worth (by David Warlick (a leading classroom technology educator)

(3) Warlick's CoLearners / Redefining Literacy For The 21stCentury

(4) Sharp Brains (Brain Based Learning)

(5) Brain Based Learning - A Brain Based Teaching Approach By Eric Jensen

(6) Reading Today (International Reading Association or IRA)

Some blogs by fellow classmates in ED 5611 that I have found insightful, interesting, helpful, and thought provoking are by  Carla Sensing, Sara Denson, and by Dean Hook.

Thing 3: Blogs in the classroom

 

Photo Source: by Brenda Hargrove (Google Images)

When the question was raised about using blogs in the classroom, my immediate thought was it would be a great replace for the exit card (normally turned in on a 3x5 index card), the one limitation being of course the computer access of most classrooms (three to five computers per classroom).  I have found, through my own experiences with the discussion boards from my online classes, that I think more about my writing when trying on a discussion board (the same I think would hold true for students writing a blog).  I spend more time thinking about what I am going to say because I know my peers (as well as the teacher) will be reading.  I reread and edit my writing a lot more when I am posting, again because the world will be seeing.

Depending on the school (Sango vs. Byrns Darden) and the parents Internet connectivity, I think a blog for the parents would be another great use of a blog.  A classroom calendar, current homework assignments, upcoming lesson all could be included.

For the classes first literature circle for a 5th grade classroom, I did a whole class literature circle, reading a few pages and then stopping and having the students write their reflections, make predictions, list new vocabulary words, etc.  I would love to have tried that using a blog site (five computers in the classroom but I could have borrowed the roving computer cart with enough laptops for the class).

A great reflective activity for students (students reflecting on what they are learning – not just college students preparing a LiveText portfolio) would be to have an online newsletter where students write on what they have learned this week and include pictures.

Thing 2: My Blog and Avatar

 

Photo source by kawaii crafter (Google Images)

When consider a blog name that was anonymous, yet uniquely to me, and also trying to include my last name somewhere in the title of your blog my choice was a relatively easy one.  My last name is Brown and several years ago I was in charge of running a summer camp.  At camp they sang a song “Brown Squirrel, Brown squirrel, Shake your bushy tail” (I’ve also heard the same song with Grey Squirrel) whenever I walked into the dining hall, or when I was out and about, sort of a running camp joke.  The assignment was about the “23 things for teachers” (I know, not very imaginative or creative).  Put them together and I came up with the partially imaginative blog name.  I don’t have Facebook, and don’t Tweeter, but creating the blog was still a fairly easy process (must be all the practice from LiveText and my MS III portfolio) .  As I normally do I spent more time that I should have playing around (it got worse when I began to create my Avatar).  Speaking of creating an Avatar . . .

As hard as I tried, my avatar looked nothing like the Avatar I remember from the movie.  First there was no skin color option for blue and I couldn’t find how to add a tail anywhere (accessories?)  In creating my Avatar I opted to make mine as reflective of my physical characteristic and personality as possible.  The skin color was a slight challenge, but the blue baseball cap (couldn’t find one with the Titans logo), mustache and laptop are most reflective of who I am; the wild shirt (closest I could find to a Hawaiian shirt), shorts, and sandals of what I want to be (or more accurately of where I want to be).

Thing 1: Lifelong Learning

Photo Source: Spirit Halloween Headquarters (Google Images)

Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind

Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning

Habit 3: View problems as challenges

Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner

Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox

Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage

Habit 7: Teach/mentor others

Habit 7 ½: Play

When looking at the “Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners” I think the first, “Begin With the End in Mind” is the habit that comes easiest for me.  I am an idea person and it is very easy for me to see the big picture of things, sometime to my regret.  For example, I’m given a project for a class to write a paper.  The requirement of the paper is 10 pages long.  As I am researching I get a vision or idea of how I want to lay the paper out and what I want to say.  Most of the time I am over the 10-page requirement but I don’t stop writing until I am done with the vision I have created in my head (or run out of time).  Sometimes I will turn in projects late and take the penalty points just to finish up a project the way I want it to look.  Most of the time it is more important for me to do a job the way I think it should be done, or to my personal satisfaction, than it is to get full credit for an assignment.  While this habit is the easiest for me it at time is also my bane.

The habit that is most challenging for me is to “View Problems as Challenges.”  When I encounter a problem, I worry, fret, complain, get frustrated, etc., and basically do everything but look at the problem as a challenge or an opportunity.  I once had a boss tell me that sometimes when laying out a plan, “A...B...C...” sometimes my mind races ahead and sees a logical flaw or problem with “…J…K…L…” and I start bringing up objections and identifying the faults sometimes even before the presenter is done with the plan.  Through the years I have worked hard on listening, thinking, and taking some time (a day or two) before I speak, but still feel I have a long way to go before I begin to see problems as opportunities.  I’ve realized over the years how much time I have wasted fretting and worrying about a project or a problem instead of just jumping in and getting started.