To Be or Not To Be?

I have not ever noticed the CC logo on any website. Since I’ve not heard of creative commons before, I’ve not even thought to look for it either. As teachers and parents become more aware of the CC logo, kids will probably be taught to also be aware of this liscence. Honestly, I don’t think most kids right now worry about copyrights, so I don’t think it will have any bearing on how they learn right now. I myself am very guilty of using images, audio/video clips without giving any copyright credit. This is definitely something I need to be more aware of and stress with my students. I do share content on the web, for example, Quia games. I’ve also created teaching materials that I share with my colleagues. I’ve given verbal permission for them to use it in any way they would like and to alter it and tailor it to their students’ needs. A potential negative of using CC may be that your creation may be so altered that it is no longer recognizable.

The idea of checking my google reader and knowing that basically all of the items coming in are ones that I am interested in is kind fun. It is so much less overwhelming than doing a search. I find myself starring the items that offer ideas and tools that I will be able to use in my teaching or for my students to use. One site I found is Free Technology for Teachers where there is a post called Visual Math Learning. It offers lessons, interactive activities, and links to other activities to strengthen memory, attention, etc. Some of the lessons were a bit wordy, but others were more simplistic with helful color coding. The activities I viewed were also simple but to the point, (not a lot of graphics and distractors). They could easily be incorporated into your lesson and utilized on the smart board.

I found Pat Hensley’s site Successful Teaching where she posted an article about Importance of Knowing the Facts. She wrote about her experience of being on vacation in St. Louis and having a spontaneous conversation with a man about the St. Louis arch. He was full of information and facts that included dates and comparisons to other structures in the U.S. She was struck by the facts he knew. She had questioned the validity of making our students memorize particular facts like the names of continents, oceans, math facts, dates, etc. During this past school year, I had the same conversation with a couple of my colleagues. I have to agree with Ms. Hensley; I do think there is a lot of value in having kids memorize certain facts. They learn memory strategies as well as having a knowledge base from which one can speak and relate.

I will definitely be using wikis in my teaching. I like the idea of the collaborative model of building a site, particularly for the use of a literature unit and social studies. When looking at the wiki about Tuck Everlasting, I noticed that teacher had her students do many of the skills I have my students do: summarizing, literary devices, character evaluation, etc. Instead of each student working on these skills individually, I like the idea of students building this literature unit as a group, in which items can be added and modified. Because it would be on the web, it would be at their disposal at all times. It also occured to me that using a Wiki would also be an effective tool for taking notes in social studies. I could see the kids having to add details to main idea topics and as a class they would be developing an outline. In this way, they would be creating their own study guide. I liked how the teacher in the Go West wiki had her students incorporate Inspiration, Timeliner, student drawings and images to document learned information. Due to my small class size, I might organize my students in a rotation so each of my students contribute to each topic rather than having one student becoming an expert. Thirdly, I loved the idea of the Thousands Project. I thought the idea of having a topic travel and getting responses from potentially all over the country and/or world would be very exciting and empowering. This idea made me think of how I could “technologize” a project I have done with my classes over the years. As part of my social studies unit, I have my students create a travel log which they would actually mail. Now I’m thinking I could have the kids create a wiki page for their travel log and have it travel through cyberspace. This would eliminate logs getting lost and for so many more entries to be made.

It is amazing to me how the genre of blog writing has exploded during these last few years. I think it is an effective and certainly quick way to communicate your thoughts, whether you are commenting or posting. It is also a great way for people to learn from each other and about each other. For me, personally, I haven’t gotten on board yet. Other than this course, I have not blogged before. Since being on the computer is not typically something I spend a lot of time doing when I have free-time, it has not even occurred to me to join in on this new form of communication. As I read many of the blogs on the list, I was amazed at the wealth of information that is out there, that is being discussed, shared, and debated through the blog format, and what I may be missing out on. Reading the blog on Why I Don’t Assign Homework was interesting and gave me food for thought. I particularly enjoyed the blog, Is This SSR 2.0? I loved how the teacher used this as a vehicle for students to journal and for their peers to write comments or ask questions. I would like to incorporate blogging into my curriculum; there are endless opportunities to use this form of communication, from having kids journal, respond to literature, to taking a stand on an issue discussed in social studies or current events. Blogging can be assigned in short and manageable amounts. For the student whose written expression skills or reading skills are less developed, the informality and shorter text style of blog reading/writing may be less overwhelming. The writer must communicate in a brief but succinct manner, which lends itself to developing specific skills (main idea, summarization, persuasive writing). I like how the student has the opportunity to comment, inquire, and/or ask for clarity anonymously. Blogging by way of interacting anonymously is a wonderful and non-threatening way to facilitate one’s learning.

Initially, I did not even know what the term Web 2.0 meant. Now that I do, I feel it is becoming the way we have to teach and learn. From a professional standpoint, the idea of incorporating this type of 2-way communication and interaction is exciting. It will definitely broaden the possibilities of ways information can be delivered to the learner as well as making them much more involved and engaged in the process. The idea of blogging, having kids develop their own web pages, wikis and having other students learning from and responding to them is exciting. Since I am a teacher in a laptop program, I feel there are so many possibilities I haven’t even tapped into, so I am eager to learn and incorporate new ideas into their learning.

The habit that will be most important will be feeling confident as a learner as I begin and go through this course. The idea of learning how to do new things with technology is exciting but I am also very intimidated. I am not comfortable just “playing” and exploring on the computer, but I am determined to overcome this. Beginning with the end in mind is actually helpful because I love the idea that if and when I “survive” this course, I will know so much more, feel like I know what I am doing, and be inclined to utilize these exciting new ideas into my teaching. The most challenging habit will be accepting responsibility for my learning. I will have to stay really focused to stick with this and get to thing 23. Since I am not one to gravitate to the computer for anything but a fun, quiet game of spider solitaire on my own time, this may take a lot of effort for me to execute this self directed course. I am very grateful for the support of my colleagues.

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