Digital Story

This is a very helpful tool! I am scared by digital stories because I was just introduced to them, but I think that they are very useful. I really think that I would use them for introducing a topic or and event that I would be teaching. I have chosen Mount Vesuvius which is a volcano that erupted and preserved the community. There are pictures of the findings that I am going to put into my digital story and I think it would be an amazing way to show primary sources and really engage the students in the topics they learn. I have thought about just getting a video for lessons but you have to find one that really fits the learning content, so why not make a digital story that can be exactly what you want the content to be and the exact facts or details you want to have students know. I am really impressed by the digital stories we looked at in class, students did one of how their parents met, and how their family got to America with real photos. I really think this would be a fun project to do of your class. Each student could contribute a picture of themselves and facts about their life and we could make one up of all the students. I would use the digital stories to report information to any grade level, but for an assignment I would have upper grades make their own. This is a great tool because you can have your students do any subject matter in their digital stories. It would be fun to see what they would do as a topic that they chose and one that I gave them. I really think this would be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to learning more about them!

Web Page Mania

The class we had on Wednesday I found to be very helpful and easy. I really thought that this web page could be used for many aspects of the classroom. One idea that I thought would be fun would be the students could make a web page of a country that they wanted to visit. They could look up places and pictures online and then we would be able to show them on an overhead projector of what each student picked. That would be a lot more fun and interactive than a formal essay on a country. This would have to be done in older grades but younger grades could do something similar. I really like the idea of being able to have an open web page where others can't comment, it is just there for information or viewing purposes. As a teacher I think that I would have a personal web page that I would have my contact information for parents of my students. I think that this would be better than just passing out a piece of paper that is going to be lost, they know the URL they are able to find me. This is a great tool that I really want to use in the classroom. Another idea I had was that the students could do an invention or do something like start a fake business and make a web page on their business that was only for our class to view. Then we could go through each persons website and again, I think that this is more interactive and fun verses doing a traditional essay or project. It would make the students feel equal because they don't need to do anything at home, they can do it all in class time that is provided. Also, it will have more of a chance of getting done and getting to the classroom because it is an interactive, fun activity that is done in class and there is nothing physical to turn in so the students are going to have a better time doing it. Also those students who struggle with English can have a buddy system and they could make a group web page. I think that this is a great tool for teachers to know. It is easy and effective. One other thing I thought of is that you could make this into a portfolio of all of the things you have done over the year and it can show students progress. It would be a nice visual way that doesn't take up any space in your classroom for the end of the year (if your school allows it).

Yes I Love Technoloy.... Not as Much as You, You See

I think that using the wiki in class really helped me understand how I could use it in my classroom. I thought of an idea to use wiki and incorporate it in lessons related to science. I thought that we could go to a near by stream/pond and take pictures with digital cameras of the insects, plants and take samples of the water and take a picture of the sample. Then when we get back into the classroom we can upload our pictures and make a wiki of what is at the pond/stream by our school. This I find easier to do verses chatting on the document, however, I think that it is beneficial to use a a group planning a lesson or using a wiki in a lesson if at different times we are all uploading, creating, and adding to the wiki. Our group during class had a hard time getting synchronized with all of our ideas going different directions with our wiki. In lower grades I think making a community wiki is more realistic and in older grades they can make their own. Something I really like about the wiki is that you can use it with any subject in your class. I thought of something that an older class could do with a wiki that I did on a poster in sixth grade. On a poster we drew and wrote steps of how to do something in 5 sequences or less. I did "How to Hit a Golf Ball," then put the appropriate steps. Now on a wiki they could take pictures of the particular thing they are describing and then put it in sequences on their own personal wiki. I really think this has super potential to make concepts concrete.

Technology In the Classroom

I am really excited to start this class because I realize that as we are in the program not only our end of program assignment is electronic, our students will be electronic. I am amazed by my little sister who is seven. She can play games for fun and learn important facts on the internet. I remember I played a game at home when I was in fifth grade the game was called Jumpstart Fifth Grade. I put the knowledge I learned from that to good use. For example, in the game you had to move the mouse to stack boxes on top of each other or add fractions to make drinks and I thought that was really innovative! I was really suprised that when my sister who is seven, her game that she likes to play on the internet already does fractions and she is in second grade!!! So my thoughts of putting technology in the classroom is that it needs to be available. In my sisters school their second grade teachers wrote a grant so they were able to have two computer carts with laptops. So when they are doing math they connect on to a program they have on their laptop and add fraction pizza pies together or they can read a story that is on their laptop. The interesting thing about the way her teacher inplements it is that they mostly just use it for a reward. I think that that is wrong. They are rewarded by getting to use the laptops when I think they should be more integrated in the classroom. The sad thing I think is that they are used to having this technology now and when they hit third grade it is lost.