TEC 950- Social Bookmarking

Through my years of teaching, I have learned not to hoard items, such as books, worksheets, 'tools'. If I have not used it recently, or I could easily find it, I am learning not to keep it. The same goes for my use of different sites, and articles. Now, i often print articles or posts because I prefer to read 'offline'. When I come across an article I'd like to share or post to my blog, I just stack it, physically. Thankfully it is only one stack, but it gets bigger and bigger depending on the season of my life.

If I were to read more things online, I would need a better way than just bookmarking into a folder, which works but can get crazy depending on how many sites I've visited. Enter Diijo or Delicious. these bookmarking sites promise a way to save all those articles that I read online, well, online. At the beginning of this Program, we signed up for Diijo and I was looking forward to checking out Delicious.

However, one of my sayings is that "tech is great when it works". Annnddd...it didn't. Delicious is down until July 24 because they are doing work on their servers. One of the articles I read was saying that Delicious is more user friendly for in class use, so I was looking forward to checking it out. The big plus is using the "tags" function, where you label the articles you find so it is easier to filter and share out certain links, instead of all of them.

Diijo works nicely to bookmark websites or highlight certain parts of an article. Honestly, though, for either of these, I don't know the likelihood of me visiting these sites much personally, and we'll have to wait and see if this will be something to use with my 3rd graders. I may be able to do what I would need for my kiddos by using my G Sites page to gather these things. (Part of my goal for next year is to not inundate my students with a ton of sites, but really dig deep with just a few)

As with any new tool I learn about, I always try to filter it through my "usage filter". I ask myself a couple questions. 

1) Can I use this in my classroom? 

2) Will it save any time? 

3) Can I take the concept and use a tool I (or my kids) already know? 

4) How will this make me more effective as a teacher?

I can see the value in using this kind of tool because of ALL the content out there, it can be difficult to organize and access later, when needed. Helping my kids be thoughtful about which sites they are using and being purposeful about how they organize them will be a lifelong process to more effective communication and collaboration and aid in becoming a useful digital citizen. These tools, or something similar could be just what they (and I) need.

Derrick

Technology Blog- RSS Feeds and Readers

RSS Feeds

I have been using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds (and aggregators) for quite some time, on a personal level. I had my own Blog, with Blogger.com starting around 2005-2015ish. It probably ended before that, but every couple months, I would add some content. Around that time, I also learned about a feed reader. The one I used at the time was Bloglines. I used that one for many years. When it closed down, I went over to Feedly I did not like it because I was so used to Bloglines (I don't like change sometimes). When my district went to Google Apps for Education, I was about to try Google Reader, because it was Google. Unfortunately, it was also around the time that they were shutting down Google Reader. Haha. So, I stuck with Feedly.

These days, any website that doesn't have an RSS Feed, will not likely get my support, as I don't want my email clogged with newsletters and I will never remember to head to the site again. While I do not check it daily, I would have a hard time living without my aggregator. Since many of my topics are either about Christianity or education, I read things that are similar. Trying to remember what I already read at a particular site would be difficult to manage. 

It would be interesting to try a feed reader in the classroom, though with my 2nd graders, that could be more work than it would be worth. With the upper grades, it could be more useful, but then you start getting into potential content issues and it would be difficult to maintain the accountability for the students. As far as the ISTE standards, it would be important to focus on getting students to be good digital citizens, in picking topics or sites that are appropriate for school. The idea that anyone can be checking out your blog helps with Communication as well. 

If my students were older and had access to a blog, using the feed reader would be a good way to keep track of any new posts. Though, I think that idea would be better suited for an older group of students.

Even if I didn't use it specifically in the classroom, I use it often when I come across a new article or blog post that pertains to my classroom situation. Whether it is a new tool, teaching strategy, activity or combination, this is a valuable tool I use often. If it ever left, I do not know what I would do. Maybe read a book. :-)

Derrick

TEC 950- Wiki Reflection

This is a roller coater post. When I first heard of Wikis, I thought of Wikipedia and how it has seemed to be a little sketchy in terms of quality and reliability. However, after reading the book and some of the resources, I am more comfortable with the medium and I can see the value and power in having students collaborate to add content, learn from each other, correct each other and grow.

With the other part of disappointment came when I started looking at ways to incorporate this in the classroom. Many of the sites I was trying to access were in various stages of disarray. Wikispaces, which seemed to be the benchmark for this in the classroom, is closing down in a month.

Wetpaint seems to be a celebrity gossip column now. Several others were now different sites also. PBwiki and about 10 others I checked would not even load and kept timing out or giving me the dreaded 404 or 504 error message. When I was seeing useful items, my computer would freeze up; in excitement I assume.

So, I kind of gave up on having something that would work the way I wanted. I was trying Weebly, but when I went to publish, it froze for about 5 minutes, then timed out. It was not my day. I spent about 2 and a half hours kind of wasting my time. It makes me a little anxious when that starts happening. :-) 

I resigned to use Google Sites or just a Google Doc (think...hyperdoc) for using this in the classroom. Finally, I got the Weebly to publish.

HERE is what I hastily put together. While I would certainly change some things if using it in the classroom, I like the idea. I would also have to look more into a tool I can use that will be easy for my 3rd graders and that would not be a lot more work for me when they are using it, as well as finding a way to moderate what goes into the site.

The example I have on Weebly just shows a brief example of how students could share their learning on something like seasons. I would probably want to explore the themes more, so that each response could be it's own section where students could add more detail, pictures and/or videos. I would work with them to add links as well. But, this could be a tool that could be used as a KWL type chart, where students share what they think they know or remember about a topic and that they could revise, discuss and edit as needed as they learn more.

I could see using this as part of just about any topic that requires students to learn facts. Especially as the Common Core Standards (CCSS) put a greater emphasis on nonfiction reading, and reflection. One example is RI.3.5, which states "Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently." This would make the Wiki a great tool to use for helping students  navigate a wiki for themselves and create their own.

It also fits several ISTE standards dealing with Constructing knowledge and Collaboration, and for some students, it could lead to discussions about the Design of the site or content. 

So, as sad as it is that the seeming best tool for this, Wikispaces and its replacements are not useful (because they don't or won't exist), I plan on using some form of this in the class. 

Derrick

Exploring the Interwebs for Weblogs and the Classroom

So, as I was looking at different blogs, there was such a variety of blogs. Even among educators. I do notice that even some that have good content, I have a hard time staying focused on what they are saying if there is too much text without something breaking it up. Like a picture.

I think this observation will help with my students. Helping them to choose a picture to illustrate their ideas in some way. Maybe it is a picture of the book they are reading. Or a humorous picture of the topic. Or something completely random. But also making sure they are focusing first on the content, whatever it may be. Otherwise they may get distracted. :-)

There are many uses that I can think of for them. I think that when students have an audience of someone besides their teachers or parents, they may be more careful about how they are saying things (or for some, the opposite). They will be able to share a project or thought or an opinion in a different forum than paper and pencil.

I am not likely to use Blogger or Wordpress for my students because the ability to monitor is not as strong with these and since I will be teaching 3rd graders next year, I don't necessarily think they need a completely open, global audience. I want to protect some of their innocence while I can. I think privacy is an important component for school districts, and for me as a parent.

I have used KidBlog in the past and it has a great teacher dashboard that allows to connect with other classes or globally if you like. (It is $54/yr) I noticed that Seesaw has a blog option. It is free.

If I could pick one possibility to get my kids started, it could be the book review. The book review can easily hit several reading standards for fiction or nonfiction, depending on the prompt. In addition, it is a way to present student's ideas, collaborate with others, connect with those that may agree and share their thoughts and reasons with those who may disagree. Students could add videos and other graphics as part of the process. Depending on the purpose or level of the student.

There are several ISTE standards that can be reached with a blog, some of which is reached by the comments above. Using the book review, students can be Empowered Learners, Digital Citizens, Creative Communicators and Global Collaborators.

The more I type about how this could be used, the more I want to use it in the classroom. What about you? Can you see yourself using this in the classroom? Let me know in the comments.

Derrick