Communicating with Parents
1. http://polleverywhere.com/ - this is an excellent way to have parents or staff members vote and interact. I struggled to figure out how to use this with students in a classroom because not all students have a cell phone. I looked around to see if it was possible to use in a computer lab type setting where all students have a computer, but I couldn't figure out how they could respond.
2. http://cel.ly/education - this is an interesting way to communicate with a group of people. I would need to play with it a bit more to see if it would be feasible to expect my students to use this site to interact. I currently teach in an elementary classroom, and the primary grades in my demographic of students may not have the same experience interacting on the computer as other areas might. I would like to try it, because it seems that a great number of college classes are going to the online features of edmodo and schoology. This would ensure that my students have been exposed to online communication.
Google Tools and Web Resources
www.similarsitesearch.com- wondeful site that allows you to search for websites that are similar to your favorite sites. It is wonderful for teachers that have found sites that they like to use with their students, but the students are getting bored with the site. This site will allow the teacher to find sites that are similar, but new to the students.
Tagul
Tagul is a neat way to put all of your lessons and links in one place for the kids to access. It is kind of like a self selected webquest for the kids. I think that it could be very beneficial to use and organize information for students to refer back to on a class webpage. They could also create their own on interests or projects that they should do for class.
Internet Searching
www.thinglink.com- another way to organize links and media for lessons and units
Digital Citizenship
Respect, Educate and Protect (REPs)
The acronym REP is a way to remember the themes of digital citizenship. Each area encompasses three topics which should be taught beginning at the kindergarten level. When I consider teaching digital citizenship, I see that grouping the three subcategories seems to be the most clear way to make sure that it is taught completely.
Respect Your Self/Respect Others
Etiquette
Access
Law
Educate Your Self/Connect with Others
Communication
Literacy
Commerce
Protect Your Self/Protect Others
Rights and Responsibility
Safety (Security)
Health and Welfare
Below is a www.jogtheweb.com webquest that students can complete to learn more about digital citizenship.
The acronym REP is a way to remember the themes of digital citizenship. Each area encompasses three topics which should be taught beginning at the kindergarten level. When I consider teaching digital citizenship, I see that grouping the three subcategories seems to be the most clear way to make sure that it is taught completely.
Respect Your Self/Respect Others
Etiquette
Access
Law
Educate Your Self/Connect with Others
Communication
Literacy
Commerce
Protect Your Self/Protect Others
Rights and Responsibility
Safety (Security)
Health and Welfare
Below is a www.jogtheweb.com webquest that students can complete to learn more about digital citizenship.
Collaboration
Collaboration through Social Networking- Social Networking is a great way to encourage shy students to speak their minds in class. www.voicethread.com is a site that allows people to create pages that others can link comments on. You can leave a comment with voice, typing, phone or webcam. It would be a great way to teach a collaborative lesson where each page is set up for one group of students to comment on. You could also do separate voice threads for each section of a chapter, or main ideas of a presentation. Administrators could use it to break down the sections of the Staff Handbook or Student Handbook (think jigsaw with a computer). It would add voice and a bit of interest to presentations rather than a read and respond type of activity.
Collaboration through Blogging- www.mural.ly
"This site is like Prezi meets Pinterest with a little Mindomo mixed in" Great quote! It is very descriptive to what this site allows us to do, with the exception that it allows us to share the link with others to link with. I think this would be a great idea for teachers to utilize when they plan together. For example, when I met with my second grade team we would often decide upon the standard that we were going to teach, then we would find materials and sites that we would use to teach that standard. I tend to be heavy on the interactive sites, while others on my team were heavy on personally created worksheets or links to ways to teach the standard. By using this site we could create a mural that focused on the standard and share the editing rights. As we found things to use to teach with, we could add them on the site and have it for years to come!
Digital Storytelling
I used Flickr to create a set of pictures of different components of the computer. I created notes on each picture that explained the parts and their uses.
My hope was that this feature would work like a virtual posterboard. I hoped to have a posterboard full of pictures that had notes across them that explained the pictures. This isn't what I found to happen. If anyone knows of any site that allows this please let me know! Sliderocket was similar, but not quite what I was looking for my elementary lab.
My hope was that this feature would work like a virtual posterboard. I hoped to have a posterboard full of pictures that had notes across them that explained the pictures. This isn't what I found to happen. If anyone knows of any site that allows this please let me know! Sliderocket was similar, but not quite what I was looking for my elementary lab.
I used www.photobabble.com to create an audio review of the parts of the computer. It wasn't much different than what I would say in front of the classroom, but I wanted to play with the application to see what creative ways the kids could use it. Some ideas that came to me immediately are personal narritives or creative writing pieces. Often students can tell about events that happened, or make up great stories from pictures, but they are unable to write it down, or don't want to write it down. Photobabble would enable students to voice their stories and use that for a great start for portfolio pieces or writing assignments.
Since I needed 6 pictures with audio, for my assignment / story, I collected the six links to the photobabbles in a jog the web.
Since I needed 6 pictures with audio, for my assignment / story, I collected the six links to the photobabbles in a jog the web.
I used www.toondoo.com to create this storyline for the properties of a mouse. This site was extremely user-friendly and fun to use. It was easy enough and had enough pictures in its software that students could use it without having to find pictures online. I think this is the best software to introduce kids to creating storylines. As they get older, add steps like finding and saving pictures to use from the web or from a digital camera.
I used www.mixbook.com to create this storybook on the parts of the computer. I don't know that this was the best use for this site, but there are a lot of great ways that you could use this site in the classroom.
Students could write thier own stories using a provided picture selection. Students and teachers could create a yearbook or a project diary. Students could create historical fiction about a time period or group of people.
It was a little difficult to work with, so it wouldn't be my first choice, but it isn't bad for those students that are up for a challenge.
Students could write thier own stories using a provided picture selection. Students and teachers could create a yearbook or a project diary. Students could create historical fiction about a time period or group of people.
It was a little difficult to work with, so it wouldn't be my first choice, but it isn't bad for those students that are up for a challenge.