Internet Tools for Teaching
EDIM 514
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.
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