It’s hard to believe that this course is over! It has really fl0wn by. I have learned a lot about a lot of things, and have reviewed some things that I already knew, but I really did take in a lot from this course. I especially enjoyed the podcast portion of the learning. I think this is something that the students would love to do-like podcasting about what we’d done for the week, having a special star student podcast, podcasting the homework, I could go on and on, but I won’t.
I really enjoyed the flexibility of the course, I think it was spaced out perfectly. If I wasn’t able to get much done one week, I could catch up the next week without having red marks on everything. Doing things online makes everything so much easier.
There were some things about the course I didn’t like, and don’t think I will use-the kids podcasting about what we’ve done and listening to themselves would be great. Having students listen to a podcast from a random person, I don’t think would go over as a hit. But, it’s worth a shot. I probably won’t use librarything, but the majority of the other things we touched on will be very useful in my day to day teaching.
All in all, I took in a lot of information that I otherwise would now have known about. As well as took in a lot of different methods to get said information. The easy part is now done. Learning about it. The hard part will be taking what we’ve all learned and applying it to the classroom. I think I will apply a lot of what I learned, especially the podcasts, to my teaching, and will create a more 21st century classroom straight away. Thanks for all the cool stuff Shelly!
I recently went to an FETC conference in Orlando, FL, and Ning was everywhere. I didn’t go to one session where one of the presenters didn’t mention Ning. So I dug into it a little bit, and found out what it was. I originally had it confused with Jing, but the two are nothing alike. I used something similar to Ning when I was in college in 2002, Blackboard. I had no idea what the capabilities were, not having wrapped my brain around all of the amazing things you can do. I don’t think any of us had any idea what we had at our disposal. It had just come out, and didn’t have a ton of users I don’t think. Like I said, I wasn’t aware of it’s power. I have always said since I graduated, I could have graduated with my Education degree having only been through my internship. I enjoyed the classes I took, but the thing that actually prepared me for teaching, was the actual experience itself. Being surrounded by teachers, and professionals that will give you ideas, and that you can watch in action is the best way to learn, in my opinion. Being able to have someone say, this looks good in a textbook, and by all theories should work, but it only works in a perfect situation, is a very useful tool. That’s what Ning gives you. Classroom ideas, professional advice, lesson plans, you name it. At your finger tips, you have endless resources in almost any genre you can think of. If you can’t find it, hop on the forums and ask someone. The thing about teachers is, we are always willing to give up our ideas that work to anyone who might want to use them. You can find all sorts of really cool things for free, all you have to do is look. Ning is a great tool to help teachers grow professionally and digitally, if that makes sense. I think a lot of teachers are not very advanced in computer technology. However, there are a lot of younger people coming in and changing that. Ning is easy to use, and like all things internet, has fast feedback…almost immediate results.
It has been difficult to continually check my reader, but recently have found that there is a ton of really useful information to discover there. I really liked this post from the 2 cents worth blog-Continuing to Re-think Creativity. It is a post to a previous comment he made about creativity. He said that it was something you could only truly master with an end goal in mind. I’d say in most cases that’s true, but some of my best ideas come to me without even thinking about anything in particular. One of the things that caught my eye was that he was talking about a musician he saw that taught himself to play the guitar, and how that was making him think that he could be wrong. He also spoke about the iPad and how it’s making him do things he previously wouldn’t have done as much, like read. Basically, it’s so much easier to be creative these days when there are so many tools to help you be creative.
I really thought pageflakes was a really cool deal. I really like all of the “flakes” you can add to a page. I particularly liked the to do list flake. The checklist portion was pretty amazing. I also liked the grade tracker flake. This is a very useful tool, and can be used in many different ways. At my school we already have web pages that we are required to use, but this could be a very useful addition to it. The podcast tool bar is quite useful, and could be used quite easily with what I said I’d do with podcasts earlier. Overall, I had a great experience with the pageflakes tools. I definitely look forward to using this!
Google is the most amazing online resource out there. I am convinced that google is taking over the planet. This updated docs stuff is amazing. I really am looking forward to this because I do a really cool clickable map in powerpoint that I haven’t been able to upload to my blog because there isn’t the right technology yet. With the presentation tool, I think it will be possible! Another way is that I am always thinking of fun stuff to do, but usually forget about it before I get back to school. Now, I can just get it from anywhere I am (iphone), and pick up where I left off teh next day, or week or whenever I get to it. Yet another really cool thing is the collaboration. You could invite students, or parents to take part in a survey where they could offer feedback for your class or grade. Pretty nifty.
I’ve recently used this presentation portion in our school with other teachers. We were presenting something, and we all contributed to a collaborative document from google. It was awesome. From my house I could do something and have it instantly updated for someone in China…or wherever!
So, I really love youtube. I’ve used it for years, not particularly for teaching purposes, but recently just realized how many educational videos you can find. I really love all of the different creative ways people come up with to offer up info…in ways that I myself would never have thought of. Recently a friend was conducting a science camp, and showed me a video she was going to present. It was on the reaction of a mentos in coke and why that reaction took place. Not only is what happens pretty awesome, the guy in the video was pretty fun to watch. Then the kids got to go conduct their experiment. I’m also a big fan of united streaming. You can find some amazing stuff. Just last week I used it after a unit I did on the American Revolution. Viva la Revolution! So this video has nothing to do with anything I teach, I’m just obsessed with these right now. Amazing!
Once you get over hearing your own voice, podcasts are a ton of fun. To me, I feel pretty special knowing that a ton of people will hear what I say, and most likely the majority will disagree with me. ha ha! But seriously, creating podcasts is something that students can do, would enjoy, and even parents could use. A really good way to use this in your class room, would be to create a weekly review of what was covered in class-this could be done by you, or by a student. Parents could sign up for it, and boom, they know what’s going on in your classroom. It would be convenient for field trips, upcoming activities, all sorts of fun stuff.
All of this makes me go back to my last post bashing podcasts, yes, I still think that unless it’s the perfect one, the kids could get bored easily. However, the students listening to other students could really be something cool for them, and I think they would love it. So, still mixed emotions about listening to them, but creating them, cool stuff!
To be totally honest, I thought it was way too hard to find a podcast I liked on iTunes. The search option was pretty limited. I signed up for a podcast from my church, and one entitled “schoolsucks”. I generally don’t have a problem figuring things out fairly quickly when it comes to computers, and I love the convenience of iTunes. It is one of the best tools to download music out there, and is very easy. However, the podcast portion didn’t seem easy to me. I know students are never too young to introduce this kind of thing to, but I think my students would be somewhat bored with a podcast. As an adult, I really think podcasts are convenient and can be very entertaining while driving in a car or even just sitting around. For a 10 yr old, they are used to fast paced, sensory overload, in your face graphics and noise, and to have a podcast playing, would put them to sleep in my opinion. Now, not literally, but overkill would do the trick. Once in awhile, a very informative funny podcast could be very useful, but too many could be bad news. If there are funny Bill Nye ones, I bet they would like it, but other than that…it could get dicey.
Librarything…hmmm. I just recently took up a love of reading (within the last 2-3 yrs) , and I can see this being useful I guess for those hardcore readers, but it seems like just another thing out there. Just like anything else, if you take the time to truly work with it, I’m sure it would be a really cool tool, but I don’t see myself using this personally or professionally. Although, I have some friends who are going to be all about this. With the age of my students, I don’t think they would use it very efficiently. Cool concept, but it just seems unnecessary.
Yummmmm! Delicious is amazing! This could be an amazing tool to use just as we are using it in this class. Make an RSS feed where all teachers from a school could collaborate, what a tool! At first, I was really confused by what was going on, but I picked it up pretty quickly, and the tagging aspect will make it much easier to pinpoint favorites, rather than thumbing through them. Thanks for the great site!
Hosted by 