Internet Tools for Teaching
EDIM 514
The Book Fair is here! The Book Fair is here! The Book Fair is here! It's my favorite time of year...seeing some new books, some classics, some gross books, some hilarious books...I love it all! This is one of my kiddos who was pretty pumped to see this Pokemon book. I must admit, my heart sank a bit when that was the book he was most excited about. What about the newest I Survived book or that awesome looking shark book behind him? But...on the other hand, I love that he makes his own choices. So many times, parents will complain that their kids will ONLY read graphic novels or ONLY read the video game books. Do you hear what I hear? They're READING! They're reading on their own time about things that are important to them! Since the revival of Pokemon in the last few months, it's all I hear about. It's like a language I've never heard and will never understand. That's okay...it's their language, not mine. I'm not one of those teachers that prohibits their students from reading "fun books." What is a fun book anyways? In my honest opinion, that Pokemon book does not look fun to me whatsoever! So, I'm proud of this kid, and for all of my students, for knowing who they are as a reader and being enthusiastic for reading books for themselves!
#greenteamphotochallenge
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Today, the third and fourth graders welcomed best selling author Jennifer Holland, creator of the Unlikely Heroes and Unlikely Friendships series. She shared stories about the animals she has written about, her passion for reading and writing, how she researches for her books, and more! Over the last couple years, my students have Skyped with and met authors in person, and it's amazing to see the transformation in their interactions with these authors. Their questions have transformed from, "What's your favorite ice cream?" to "What made you become an author?" and "What inspires you as a writer?" I love that these children can see themselves as readers and writers, even at such a young age. Even better, the moment we returned to the classroom, everyone had stories to share about animals they've seen. They are collecting ideas to write about without even knowing it!
#greenteamphotochallenge I used the SonicPics app ($1.99 in the app store) to create my digital story. Trying to find authentic photos to include in my story was not the easiest, but I think it came out pretty good, especially considering it was completely created on my cell phone. I have used this app on iPads and iPad minis, but it was very easy to manipulate on a cell phone. I can see this app being applied across many subject areas and video is very easy to share.
You can access my digital story HERE! Being a third grade teacher and working in a K-8 district, I thought I was going to have a difficult time finding someone to interview on using cell phones in the classroom. Everyone I know uses iPads, Chromebooks or other computers. So, I did what came naturally to me...I turned to social media! I posted on Facebook that I was looking for any teacher that uses cell phones in the classroom for instructional purposes, and within a half hour, I had 3 responses! Here's what I found out...
My cousin, Kelli, teaches high school math in Indiana. Her immediate response to my Facebook post was that her students use it for Kahoot and she texts them homework through Remind.com. I sent her a private message to see if there have been any issues with misuse, privacy, or what kind of consent was needed from families. Her response was that the students have 1:1 Chromebooks, so she's never needed to ask for further consent and doubts the parents even know their children use their personal mobile devices in the classroom. My friend, Katie, is also a math teacher in a very affluent area in northern Illinois. This school pretty much paves the way for everyone else, so I was excited to hear from her. Years ago, Katie helped develop a program for freshman who struggle in math using technology-based learning strategies. She indicated that the students use their phones for Pear Deck. This is the first time I've heard of this application, but she described it as a way to ask a question and show the entire class's responses as overlaying graphs to see the mistakes anonymously (her records show specific student data) and it gives her a platform to talk about mistakes without her students feeling ashamed for not knowing the answer or fully understanding. She also said they use the calculators on their phones because it's easier than digging through a backpack to find an actual calculator. Her students do have iPads, and the phones are really just used as a backup or out of laziness. When I asked her about misuse, she said that of course there's misuse, just like anything else. Her biggest challenge is students getting distracted by social media or texting when their phones are out, but she leaves the responsibility up to the students. If they choose to misuse their devices, they are the only ones who will suffer. And again, she doesn't seem to think the parents even know their cell phones are being used throughout their class and hasn't been an issue. Then I spoke with another friend, Jenni. Jenni teaches physical education and health in a high school. She was very eager to provide feedback because she's really getting into using technology in her classroom and relies mostly on the students' cell phones. I was surprised to hear that she uses them mostly to access Google Classroom. She said most of her students have cell phones and they connect to the school's Wifi so they don't take away from their family plan. She indicated that those students that do not have cell phones have open access to a Chromebook cart in her department, so there's never been an issue with a lack of devices. She said she's "pretty sure" the students and parents sign something for technology use at the beginning of the school year, so she doesn't do anything extra in terms of getting parental consent. She uses Google Classroom to post articles for students to read and reflect, quizzes and keep food logs. She's finding it to be an incredibly easy way to communicate with students, track progress, grade, provide feedback, and more. Though Jenni has only just begun integrating the use of cell phones, she's very eager to learn more and become completely paperless by next school year. I did receive a couple other responses from teachers on my initial post. Most indicated they use Kahoot, Plickers, Quizlet Live, Dictionary.com, taking photos, and sharing classroom news on Twitter or a class website. I think what surprises me the most is the lack of fear these high school teachers have in permitting the students to use their personal cell phones in the classroom! I'm actually impressed. Being a third grade teacher, this is often the first year my students are exposed to using a device regularly for instructional purposes, and there's always A LOT of parents with questions about safety and privacy. Rightfully so. I just found it funny that Kelli, Katie and Jenni had similar responses about parental consent and usage. In the Cool Cat's Teacher's Blog's 10 Reasons Cell Phones SHOULD be Allowed in School list, number 10 states, "You're fighting a losing battle" (2009). Since the students have the devices, why not use them? The schools seem to cover the consent/rules part, then it's just up to the teachers to set expectations and find ways to enhance learning using the cell phones. I still don't think I'd encourage the use of cell phones in my own third grade classroom, but I absolutely, without reservation, see value in incorporating the devices with older students. Teachers must utilize the tools that are available, and let's face it...they're available! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Cell phones are here to stay, and I think it would be great for students to learn ways to use their phones for purposes other than texting, tweeting and chatting! Resources Davis, V. (2009, March 8). Making a case for cell phones in school. Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ Yes, I did indeed discover many new things this week! I'd like to reiterate how obsessed I am with Quietube and Printliminator! We had some friends over last night (nothing beats a bonfire in the fall!) and I showed them these great shortcuts and they, too, were obsessed! Love the little things that make our jobs just a little easier!
I found Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything website to be just that...EVERYTHING! I clicked on many of the links and played around with several of the websites, but the two I enjoyed the most were Be Funky and Storyboard. Be Funky is a photo editor that pretty much allows the user to do the same things iPhoto can do and way beyond. As I played around, I found ways to edit the photos by blurring the edges, changing the tone of the photo, rounding the edges, and much more. What I did find especially useful was being able to add graphics, text, overlays, textures, frames and artsy options (I especially liked being able to make my photo look like an oil painting!) I can see my students maximizing their creativity as they truly customize their photos. This may seem like a small celebration, but I really liked the frames, and there was one in particular called "Grunge" that would be perfect to use for our immigration unit. Last year, we used the Green Screen to take pictures of the kids in front of the Statue of Liberty. We made it a sepia filter so they could add the photo to their immigration journal. But I loved that Grunge frame to use because it gives the photo an even older look. It's the little things, really! Beyond just photos though, you can also create collages, invitations, brochures, greeting cards, etc. There really are a ton of options, and many of them are free! Of course, there are custom options that are part of the "plus" plan. I found out that a user can continue to use the site as is for free, pay a monthly fee of about $5 or a yearly fee of about $35. I think if you were someone who was really into customizing photos, brochures, collages, etc., it would be worth the fee, otherwise the free options would fit my needs perfectly. I liked how easy it was so save my photo creation, and once it was on my desktop, I could upload it anywhere...Twitter, Facebook, Kidblog, Seesaw, possibly a QR code, my class website, etc.! My students, and me, are pretty obsessed with the graphic novel format of storytelling, so Storyboard caught my eye immediately. On Kathy Schrock's site, it did indicate the site would work best on Chrome, which I don't normally use but that didn't stop me, and I'm glad it didn't. Once you get to the site, you'll notice that it's not free, which is a bummer, but there is a 14 day free trial. Personally, I don't think this is long enough for a teacher with a class of 26 third graders. It's just not enough time for the kids to really determine whether or not it's a useful tool for the long term. The subscription is about $10 a month or $60 a year. With that said...I loved the site. There are SO many different backgrounds that can be pulled into the frames, and each background can be edited to fit your story. For example, I was playing around with a castle (thinking about our fairy tale unit.) The castle looked great on its own, but then you could change the color of the castle, the flags, make it night time or daytime, snow or rain or sun...the possibilities really did seem endless. Then you could add your characters. There were adults, kids, athletes, monsters, animals, teenagers, and more...and each of those were customizable! It was super easy to add speech bubbles and change the layout of the frames. Such a great resource for storytelling across many different genres and subjects. I was eager to find out how the Storyboard is saved and shared, but I couldn't get that far because they wanted me to create an account, which I did not want to do yet. Since the free trial is only 14 days, I'd like to wait until the very last minute to create an account before sharing with my students. My guess is that it's very easy to save and share since the rest of the site was super easy to use, too. I'm thinking of emailing the developers to ask for an extension of the free trial and/or to encourage them to reconsider the fees for teachers. It's worth a shot! I'd also like to look at the site on my iPad to see if there's a mobile version/site for my students to use on their iPads. The last tool I investigated was Capzles. To be honest, I love the idea of this tool, but I didn't find it as user friendly as the others I discussed above. According to Dembo and Bellow, "Capzles is a refreshingly unique take on timeline creation that goes far beyond what you may have seen previously. Not only is it completely web based but it bakes in a series of enhanced features that make creating and viewing a Capzle both a cool and educationally sound experience" (154). This sounded like something I had to play around with. I was thinking it would be a great resource to trace our learning throughout a unit or school year. In the past, my school used concept maps to connect our learning to an overall theme such as citizenship or leadership. I would take pictures of the students engaged in our lessons and put them on our concept map so students could remember their learning, but I thought Capzles could bring that idea into the 21st century! With all the media project we do throughout the year, I thought this would be a great way to store and share our learning, however, I had some problems using the site. I was able to upload still images without any problems, but I could not get my videos to load. I'm sure it's something I'm doing, but I didn't have time to troubleshoot. I did like all the background options (still images or animated), I could add audio to the Capzles, and the ability to make the Capzles public, private, or viewable by friends. On paper, it seems like the perfect tool, I think I just need more time to explore and play! I think that Be Funky and Storyboard are tools I could really get on board with. I can use them across our curriculum and would really enhance my students' abilities to be creative and unique. Resources By creating an account you agree to our Terms of Use. (2007). Photo Editor | BeFunky: Free Online Photo Editing and Collage Maker. Retrieved September 25, 2016, from https://www.befunky.com/ Capzles Social Storytelling | Online Timeline Maker | Share Photos, Videos, Text, Music and Documents Easily. (2016). Retrieved September 25, 2016, from http://www.capzles.com/# Dembo, S., & Bellow, A. (2013). Untangling the Web: 20 tools to power up your teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin: A SAGE Company. Prototypes, L. C. (2016). Storyboard That: The World's Best FREE Online Storyboard Creator. Retrieved September 25, 2016, from https://www.storyboardthat.com/ Schrock, K. (2011, July 10). Online Tools. Retrieved September 25, 2016, from http://www.schrockguide.net/online-tools.html The shortened URL for my Wilkes blog site is https://goo.gl/yz3SN1. To be honest, I'm not sure if it's that much easier to share than angelawakewilkes.weebly.com. There are less strange characters and to me, the original site just makes more sense. However, I do see how shortening a URL would be helpful, especially for my younger students. Many times, I want them to access a website for research or perhaps some digital media, however, the web address is so long that my third graders inevitably enter something wrong. To solve this problem, I've used QR codes which generally work like a charm, but I like having different options. I'm truly surprised at how easy it was to use bit.ly and goo.gl. I do use QR codes regularly in my classroom and for a variety of reasons. It's a way I post student work on our bulletin board (my students have Seesaw accounts that create QR codes to link directly to their digital portfolio), a way to access a site, check their work in a game of Scoot, and more. One way I've been meaning to use QR codes is in my classroom library. There are SO many great book trailers available to students, but they don't always get the opportunity to view them. As you can see, I took the newest Raina Telgemeier graphic novel (always popular) and made a QR code for a short book trailer. This way, students can use their devices to scan the code, view the trailer on their own time, and determine whether or not it's a book they'd like to read! This was the first time I've used Delivr.com and I found it very easy! I typically use qrstuff.com, but I've been on the hunt to find a QR code generator that will create a code for images on my computer. I did find one at www.qr-code-generator.com. It worked out really well and used this generator for many of my beginning of the school year activities. What I did not realize (my own fault) is that I had signed up for a 14 day free trial and to continue to have my codes activated beyond that would be roughly $150 a year. RIGHT? I'm not going to lie, I've seriously contemplated biting the bullet and paying the fee...after all, I spent a LOT of time making those codes, but it's a lot of money for one year! If you know of any other QR code generators that link pictures, I'm all ears!
I was very interested in some of the Bookmarklets listed in this activity, so I played around with the first two and my jaw has pretty much been on the floor ever since! I wasn't quite understanding The Printliminator until I actually viewed the tutorial and...AMAZING! I jumped onto some sites that have so much background noise and in seconds, the noise was gone! I can't believe how easy it was to do, either! I print articles from Newsela or Wonderopolis fairly often and I'm always using white out or physically cutting or pasting pieces together to get rid of the background noise. The Printliminator took care of that problem. As teachers, we want tools that help us save time but not quality, and this tool definitely fits those two criteria! I also tried Quietube, and when I did, I started laughing. I've used SafeShare.tv for many years, but there are multiple steps to generating a new URL and then saving it, etc. Once I found a YouTube video I wanted to watch, all I did was click on the Quietube Bookmarklet, and again, in seconds, I was watching the video without any previews for upcoming videos or advertisements. There's also the option for saving the link for the future, which is really nice, but being able to use it on the spot is extremely beneficial, too! I'm looking forward to sharing some of these tools with my colleagues because I know they'll find them as beneficial as I do! The integration of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom is no longer limited to a simple Google search, and hasn’t been for quite some time. There are an abundance of great tools that lend themselves to social interactions, creativity and the curation of ideas.
We all know learning is social. Students should collaborate, share, cooperate, etc., in many different ways. When I was young, we would do group projects. We’d meet up with people at the local library, use the card catalog to find a resource and make a poster about our research. When technology entered the classroom, I think many people thought the social aspect would be lost. Students would be hyper focused on the computer or hand held device, and face-to-face interactions would be lost. However, there are so many Web 2.0 tools available to teachers that promote students to be social. Twitter is a great resource for educators of all ages. I joined Twitter around this time last year because a reading specialist at my school told me how great it is. I must admit, I’ve been a digital immigrant with Twitter, but I’m getting better. I mostly use Twitter to connect with authors and illustrators for my students. Last year, my students would write authors letters, I’d take a picture of the letter, and we’d Tweet it to the author. Most of the time, authors responded to the student within 24 hours. We also shared special projects, book trailers, class news, etc., through our class Twitter account. I found that the authors that responded to us became the authors the kids wanted to read. I even had a well-known author send me a DM after receiving a digital letter from one of my students. She had a new book coming out and wanted to send my student a signed copy through the mail. These authors truly become rock stars to students. After reading about social networking tools in Untangling the Web, I learned some new ways to incorporate Twitter into our digital lives in school. While my third graders do not study the life cycle, I enjoyed the idea of using Twitter to share newsworthy updates from a curricular standpoint (Dembo & Bellow, 125). In our upcoming Social Studies unit encompassing rights and responsibilities of citizens, I am thinking of ways to report citizenship news from the classroom. We could Tweet when a student exhibits positive examples of citizenship. I’m sure the authors we follow would love seeing children acting responsibly! For me, integrating Web 2.0 tools to enhance student creativity have been the most transformative tools in my classroom. I’m a big fan of all things Google (except Sites…I just can’t get the hang of that one!), Pic Collage, Scratch Jr, Code.org, ChatterKid, StoryKit, Comic Maker, and more. I feel these tools have given my students new and innovative ways to share their creativity, and no two projects are the same! Recently, one of my colleagues started using Glogster regularly with her fourth graders. I’ve dabbled with Glogster for classes through Wilkes in the past, but I have not used it with my students. When talking to my colleague, she indicated that she, too, utilizes all the creative tools I mentioned before, but she has the students use Glogster to collect their creative work and share with one another. She said parents also enjoy seeing the Glogsters after a unit of study, and some even share with family members outside of our community! This is on my “to try” list for this year. The only hesitation I have with using Glogster is the speed in which the site loads. When I tried it earlier this year, it was very slow on my computer and I became frustrated quickly. I’m hoping with my students iPads, it will not run so slowly. Tools that provide curation opportunities are not tools any of my colleagues, or myself, have used with our students. Of course, I’m on Pinterest and use that for a variety of reasons, including collecting education related sites and resources. As I read about eduClipper, I’m adding this to my “to try” list as well. With my students having their own iPads, I’m often adding websites to home screens one at a time, and let me tell you…it takes a while to do that for 26 iPads! By creating a class eduClipper, I can “allow…(my) students to find, collect, and share web content quickly” (Dembo & Bellow, 17). I can see this being a big time saver and useful way for not only me to share with my students, but my students to share with one another. I’d like to follow other educators, or the creators themselves, on Twitter to see eduClipper in action in the classroom. When I look for new Web 2.0 tools to use with my students, I definitely take into consideration the social, creative and curation possibilities. I’m looking forward to more conversations about these tools. Resources Dembo, S., & Bellow, A. (2013). Untangling the Web: 20 tools to power up your teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin: A SAGE Company. I was able to connect with a friend who teaches second grade in a neighboring district. While it seems as though her district is not yet fully embracing technology integration in the lower grades, she is ready and willing to implement a variety of technology based resources in her classroom.
At the current time, she finds Internet tools most helpful with writing and research. Currently, she goes to the computer lab to access Google Docs. She found Google Docs to be helpful in collaborating, editing and publishing. She also started using PebbleGo for research. She found this tool to be user friendly with informational text features, audio, and usability. When she is able to get access to the computers on check out carts, she uses them in her classroom to practice math fact fluency with xtramath.org and continued use of Google Docs. It seems as though her decisions to use technology are based mostly on whether or not she can get her hands on the technology. She has a strong desire to introduce more tools to her second graders, but she feels inhibited by her administrators and Information Specialists since she doesn’t feel they care too much about enhancing technology in the younger grades. She feels if she keeps proving it’s a passion of hers and seeks out more opportunities, the powers-that-be will provide her with the resources she needs to move forward. She’s hoping with some recent additions of a technology professional development team in her district, they will also advocate for enriching technology in the younger grades. When I asked her what advice she would give to teachers starting out, she said that one must be patience and have perseverance. She indicated that it can be easy to give up and continue to use more traditional teaching methods, but with her interest and desire to become more 21st century learning centered. As for patience, she feels she not only needs to be patient with her administration, but also with the students. It takes time and patience to facilitate activities that incorporate new Internet tools to ensure the students are using the tool correctly and effectively. I thought it was very interesting to talk to my friend about technology in her district. What I realized is that our district has similar viewpoints: grades 3-8 will be 1:1 in the next 5 years while K-2 will be technology “rich.” I’ve also seen this as a celebration, since I teach third grade! I hadn’t considered how this affects the younger teachers. Many of them seem eager to integrate technology but feel they aren’t supported by the admin. I can see how frustrating it would be as other classrooms are doing some pretty amazing things with technology and you feel your being left in the dark. This makes me think that maybe I should try to find a younger classroom (1st or 2nd grade) to buddy up with and teach them how to use different Internet tools. Not only would this expose the younger kids to useful tools, but it would give my third graders an opportunity to share and be leaders. Angie Wake's Wilkes University Blog by Angie Wake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://angelawakewilkes.weebly.com/.
To be completely honest with you, this is the first time I've thought about, or even considered, creating a license for my work. With the amount of information out there and wanting to set a good example to others on how to use the Internet and other people's resources responsibly, I do understand the need to create a license...it's just not something I've done before! I can't say I'm confident that I made the right choices, but I suppose they'll do for now. I chose the option to allow my work to be shared, because let's be honest...that's what teaching is! I know I've used ideas from other educators to inspire my own teaching and I'm very open to sharing, as my ideas aren't necessarily my own to begin with! I chose not to have this blog/ideas used for commercial use because I just didn't think it was necessary. I'm not selling anything, I'm not inventing anything new here, so I just didn't see the value in using this blog commercially.
As we begin a new school year and delve into different projects using media-based resources, this is a great reminder to me that, even on a third grade level, I need to set a good example of giving credit to resources I use through a bibliography, quotes, sharing, etc. |
Angie Wake's Wilkes University Blog by Angie Wake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://angelawakewilkes.weebly.com/. AuthorAngie Wake - 3rd grade teacher in northern Illinois ArchivesCategories |