Wikis are powerful collaboration tools that can be utilized in countless ways in the classroom. After the initial introduction of the concept of wikis, I think that most classroom teachers will find that students will be largely responsible for driving the content of the wiki. This is fantastic news as long as the students have been properly instructed on the intention of the content.
For my 5th graders, I plan to create a wiki that includes links for the educational websites used in the classroom. Since a large portion of my spelling homework comes from spellingcity.com, I will definitely include a link to this website on my class wiki so that students can access and even complete homework online. I will also include links to brainpop, united streaming, and funbrain. Students will be encouraged to add weblinks of their own that might be of interest to their classmates.
Students will also be able to add group and individually created slideshows, podcasts, videos, annimation, glogs and blogs to our classroom wiki. Additionally, students will be able to work collaboratively on class and group projects throughout the school year. Students will be able to create and post book reviews, helpful tips and and homework questions/help on our classroom wiki.
After students have become comfortable with our classroom wiki, I will ask that they find other wikis to follow so that my class can become connected with other learners around the globe. The future of our students' education is in collaborative global learning, so why not offer a glimpse now of what is to come.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Blogging In the Classroom
In my 5th grade classroom, I think it would be a great idea to create a blog for my students to share their thoughts and opinions about books they are reading and/or concepts they are learning in math, science, social studies, etc. I think it would be important to allow students to express themselves in a variety of ways, so I would not want to limit them to only written blogs. I would want for them to be able to express their opinions (or reviews) in the form of a video, a glog, a picture, a podcast, an animation, and/or an audio recording. I have been working in collaboration with members from my T3 grant group and we are all very excited about not only creating such an environment for our students, but linking our students in a safe online community with other learners across the country and maybe even around the globe. Although our plans are still in their infancy, we are all very excited about this idea and we are looking forward to seeing our plan in action!
Another thing that I think would be helpful to my 5th graders is a homework helper type blog. In this blog, I would ask my students to post questions they have when they need help with an assignment they do not understand. I would instruct my students that this wouldn’t be a place for them to exchange answers, rather, it would be a place for them to help one another to better understand concepts. For example, if a student was having trouble remembering how to use lattice to solve a multi-digit multiplication problem, they could post a question on the blog and another student or students could answer their blog with helpful tips. Also, this would be very useful for students who are absent. They could post a blog asking about what we did in school that day and classmates could help keep absent students up to date with the concepts being learned that day in class.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Thoughts on the differences in the generations
As I was reading the article, Teaching the IGeneration, I found myself thinking about how differently technology is viewed by different age groups. My parents, both baby boomers, were extremely resistant to signing up for the internet. They were so concerned about privacy issues and viruses that they just did not want to take the chance. Cell phones was another big taboo for them...in fact, my Dad STILL refuses to carry one! My mother, on the other hand, can no longer leave the house without hers! It took her awhile to open up to the idea of texting, but now that she has learned how, she can text with the best of them! It took me a very long time to convince her that she could take pictures on her cell phone without being charged for them...I still kinda smile about that! I have been trying to convince my mother to join Facebook, but her classic reply is that she has a cell phone and an e-mail address if anyone wants to get a hold of her.
My generation, Generation X, I feel, have been given the best of both worlds. We got to grow up in a world where kids still played outside and interacted with one another in person rather than online or over a cell phone. As adults, we now get to enjoy the incredible technologies that have been created over our lifetimes. It really has been amazing to see all of the technology that has been created since I was a child. I can still remember how cool it was to have a private phone line in my bedroom (which I paid for, by the way). I can not even imagine what it would have been like to have a cell phone with unlimited long distance when I was a teenager forced to move from Austin to San Antonio and then back again a year later. I can remember learning to program a computer using BASIC and thinking that those skills would actually land me a job after high school. What I didn't know then was that by the time I was being taught those skills, they were already obsolete.
This brings me to the generations that have followed mine. These kids have grown up in an environment where technology, although constantly changing and improving, has always existed. They have never lived without it and give funny looks to anyone who even dares to suggest that it hasn't always been available. As the article suggests, the kids know more than the adults do when it comes to technology. They don't know this because of training seminars or workshops, they know this because they LIVE it. Technology is a normal part of their everyday lives. It only makes sense that they should be instructed with technology and that they should be able to create with technology. It is my belief that as educators, we owe it to our students to step out of our own comfort zone and stop thinking about what we can't do and focus on what we must do if we want our students to be successful. This goes not only for the teachers in the classrooms, but for the decision makers (administrators, districts, lawmakers) as well.
My generation, Generation X, I feel, have been given the best of both worlds. We got to grow up in a world where kids still played outside and interacted with one another in person rather than online or over a cell phone. As adults, we now get to enjoy the incredible technologies that have been created over our lifetimes. It really has been amazing to see all of the technology that has been created since I was a child. I can still remember how cool it was to have a private phone line in my bedroom (which I paid for, by the way). I can not even imagine what it would have been like to have a cell phone with unlimited long distance when I was a teenager forced to move from Austin to San Antonio and then back again a year later. I can remember learning to program a computer using BASIC and thinking that those skills would actually land me a job after high school. What I didn't know then was that by the time I was being taught those skills, they were already obsolete.
This brings me to the generations that have followed mine. These kids have grown up in an environment where technology, although constantly changing and improving, has always existed. They have never lived without it and give funny looks to anyone who even dares to suggest that it hasn't always been available. As the article suggests, the kids know more than the adults do when it comes to technology. They don't know this because of training seminars or workshops, they know this because they LIVE it. Technology is a normal part of their everyday lives. It only makes sense that they should be instructed with technology and that they should be able to create with technology. It is my belief that as educators, we owe it to our students to step out of our own comfort zone and stop thinking about what we can't do and focus on what we must do if we want our students to be successful. This goes not only for the teachers in the classrooms, but for the decision makers (administrators, districts, lawmakers) as well.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)