There are many tools online that can help teachers and their students organize information. One of the tools that I looked at was Netvibes. This is a personal dashboard where you can keep different pages on topics that you are interested in. Netvibes pulls information on your topic(s) from the web. You can chose to add or delete widgets on the page. I had heard of Netvibes before, but had never actually tried it. While I could see some uses for it, it seemed to pull a lot of information that I wouldn't use (I understand that it scours the web for the information). It was almost too much information and it kind of overwhelmed the senses. The user can add their own RSS feeds. One of the benefits is that you can have multiple pages on different topics. When I first started looking at Netvibes, it reminded me of iGoogle. I have had my iGoogle page for over a year now. I find that it is a very good way for me to organize all of my RSS feeds. It also allows me a quick way to access a particular website that I may use a lot without having to type in the URL. I have my homepage set to my iGoogle page on the computers that I use at home an at work. If a colleague asked me which one they should use, I think I would tell them that between the two formats, I would choose iGoogle. First of all, it starts you off with more of a blank slate so that you can put the information on your page that is truly relevant for you. Both pages allow you to customize your page and have multiple pages. It would be less work to have the iGoogle page than the Netvibes page because you build from the bottom up instead of trying to figure out what you need and what you need to remove. Another reason to choose iGoogle over Netvibes is that iGoogle integrates with all the other Google products that a teacher may be (or need to be) using such as Picasa, gmail, Google Docs, etc.
Another tool that I looked at was the Bubbl.us graphic organizer tool. This tool was very cool, but probably not one that I would have my students use. It was FREE! That is always a plus, however, it was not as user friendly as Kidspiration (which is also a graphic organizer, but it can cost a district a bit of money). I felt that Bubbl.us was a tool that I could use with my class, as long as I was doing the typing. It allows you to customize the colors of the bubbles and to drag and drop the bubbles to connect them (this could be useful on an interactive whiteboard if I had the bubbles already created and then had the students move them to connect the ideas). You can print your graphic organizer or post it on your website. You can also set up "sharing" for your organizer so that multiple people can add to it from different computers. It was fairly easy for me to type and add in new bubbles, but I am not a third grader. I know that some of my more tech savvy third graders would be able to use this tool with some support from me. I also know that Kidspiration, while it can be pricey, is more child friendly for my students and while free is great, sometimes it is better to fork over the money to pay for a tool that would be more child friendly and less frustrating for my young students. If the technology is getting in the way of my students learning the concept, then I would not be using the technology. I could see Bubbl.us being a fantastic tool for high school students to use.
I know we were only supposed to look at 2 tools, but I did want to say something about Classmarker website. This looks like a wonderful tool to use in class. It is a free, online test creator where your students can take their tests online and then they are "graded" by the website. It is a tool that I would like to try out with my students. I have used the spreadsheet in Google Docs to administer a self-grading online quiz with my students before and this seemed very similar, but perhaps a bit more polished. My big question that would be answered by using it with my students is "What are the advantages of the paid version of Classmarker?". I read through the site and looked at the comparison of the features in the table, but I really couldn't see how paying money was going to get me many more features that I would need except for perhaps emailing me the results. It's something to think about.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Technology in Education
I believe that technology should be an essential part of education in the 21st century. The students who come to us are using these technologies at home and to ignore them (or disallow their use) at school is doing our students a disservice. In a blog post that I just read today, Sylvia Tolisano was talking about "connecting your classroom to the world" in terms of using a blog with your class. In her post, she described a podcast by Wes Fryer where he described the difference between technology that is accommodating and that which is transformative. She said that he described technology being accommodating when you use it to replace non-digital learning. I believe that this in itself is not a bad thing. I think that this is where we need to start in our classrooms. Where we need to move towards, however, is using the technology in a transformative way...where what the students are learning would not exist without the technology.
Students are very adept at learning new technologies (as illustrated by my summer school class students who are 6, 7, and 8 years old). It's time for us as teachers to think outside the box and look at the projects that we already do with our students and ask ourselves, "how can I do this project with technology?". If I create a graph with my students, why can't I do it using Excel or some other graphing program? If my goal is to have my students learn how to collect data, create a graph, and then interpret the data, then what's to say that we can't do it electronically? Why do we have to use paper, pencil, and crayons? Using technology, and more specifically Web 2.0 tools, can open your students to a world that exists beyond the four walls of your classroom. This is important for our students today as they grow up in a global society. Technology can help prepare them for their future in our society, but it can also link them to people all over the world. Their world has expanded beyond the town that they live in! When I first started blogging with my students two years ago, they were so excited about the fact that their writing could be read by people all over the world, including in China (where a classmate had just moved back to). This gives their words power. It connects them to others. It helps make them more aware. I think by using more technology in our classrooms, our students will become more motivated and focused on the lessons we are teaching. They are seeing it as "fun"...I look at it as the vehicle that I am using to engage them in their learning and motivate them to learn more. Being focused, motivated, and engaged, this is what technology in education can do for our students.
Students are very adept at learning new technologies (as illustrated by my summer school class students who are 6, 7, and 8 years old). It's time for us as teachers to think outside the box and look at the projects that we already do with our students and ask ourselves, "how can I do this project with technology?". If I create a graph with my students, why can't I do it using Excel or some other graphing program? If my goal is to have my students learn how to collect data, create a graph, and then interpret the data, then what's to say that we can't do it electronically? Why do we have to use paper, pencil, and crayons? Using technology, and more specifically Web 2.0 tools, can open your students to a world that exists beyond the four walls of your classroom. This is important for our students today as they grow up in a global society. Technology can help prepare them for their future in our society, but it can also link them to people all over the world. Their world has expanded beyond the town that they live in! When I first started blogging with my students two years ago, they were so excited about the fact that their writing could be read by people all over the world, including in China (where a classmate had just moved back to). This gives their words power. It connects them to others. It helps make them more aware. I think by using more technology in our classrooms, our students will become more motivated and focused on the lessons we are teaching. They are seeing it as "fun"...I look at it as the vehicle that I am using to engage them in their learning and motivate them to learn more. Being focused, motivated, and engaged, this is what technology in education can do for our students.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
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