Kenya

Thing 11.5 - Evaluation

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I loved the thing #2 - Wordle, Word Sift, Glogster,etc. I will definitely be using these this year. I think my students will LOVE to showcase their learning using these wonderful tools compared to what I have done in the past. Slideshare and the screencast were great tools that I definitely see myself using this year not only for my students, but to help my colleagues as well.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I am continually online looking for new ways to enhance my teaching and trying to stay one-step ahead of my students.This has certainly opened my eyes to what is out there. By playing with these "things" it will allow me to create more enriching and engaging lessons for my students.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I was surprised at how easy it was to create a Glogster or use slideshare. The screencast was a little tricky at first. I feel like if it's easy for me to use then my students will get it in no time...they are always teaching me little tricks.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

Loved format and concept-- I look forward to doing this again next summer. I think it's helpful to have the face-to-face sessions available...even though I didn't attend any I know there were some teachers who really appreciated them.

Thanks for another fun-filled summer of learning and playing!

Thing #11 - Digital Citzenship

Digital Citizenship is basically teaching your students how to be good citizens online. This is so important since students will be spending more and more time online as they go on to middle and high school. Students need to know that everything they read online is not always 100% true!

My very first computer lab lesson is how to log in, find your SAN folder, and save a document to it. Digital citizenship will be my second lesson.

Some of my major teaching points will be....

1) Treat others the way you want to be treated. This means when commenting we need to remember the Tribes agreements(no put downs).

2) Internet safety- username and passwords, not posting personal information,etc.

3) Communication - When using the computer at home, tell your parents. If a website asks you to sign in/up, let your parents know before you sign up.

4. Plagiarism/copyright laws - Last year I had a students plagiarize information he was researching and I asked him about what he had written down and he didn't realize you can't just copy down what someone else's words from the Internet.

I plan on showing student's this website another blogger posted http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ to show them how website can appear to have real truthful information, but in reality is completly fiction. I believe there is a Disney Internet safety game out there...my students have done it in the past.I'll have to go Google it and find it...if anyone knows, please share that website. :)

Thing 10- Virtual World

This "thing" was interesting, yet confusing. I had to click help frequently to figure out what to do and I still feel like there is still so much more that I don't know!

Creating the avatar was simple enough and I figured out how to teleport myself to other places. I have to see the graphics were amazing--very realistic. I just visted the real Alamo a few weeks ago, so when I visited it again in Second Life was a impressed. Seeing the Great Wall of China, DisneyWorld (Mouse World), Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower were just a few of the places I visited.
I wouldn't have my students create avatars and venture off into the Second Life on their own. As soon as I started the first sign I saw in Second Life had sex in big letters.Students would definitely love this--maybe a middle school or high school student. If I use this in the classroom I would already have it up at whatever location I want to use with my students.

Thing #9 Slideshare

Ocean Life

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Slideshare was very easy to use and what a great resource! I constantly amazed at what is available online. What a great tool to use when using Powerpoint in class. I could definitely see myself posting the Powerpoint on my classroom blog for students who were absent or as a study tool.

This is great for sharing Powerpoints for Professional development presentations. I no longer have to worry about accessing my SAN folder to access a powerpoint or remembering to bring it with my on my thumb drive.

Slideshare reminds me of the flichart view on Promethean Planet. I wish our Repository had it because it's so nice to see what is in the flipchart without having to take the time to download it.

280 Slides is an awesome alternative to Powerpoint. It's so similar to Microsoft's verision of Powerpoint...fewer bells and whistles but hey it's free!

Thing #8- Screencast

The screencast was a bit tricky. I tried Camstudio and while recording I couldn't get the recording screen to go away. I ended up using Screencast-o-matic with great success. Very easy and best of all there is nothing to download! :) It was very easy to use.

There was a screencast on how to upload your intro flipchart assignment on the repository and I thought it was wonderful--very straightforward and I know I learn best when someone just shows me how to do it rather than write a list of steps. I could see myself using this tool to create videos for teachers at my school. Several teachers have webpages, but very few maintain them. Lack of time is one reason and the other may be they forgot how to go back in and add text or images. I could easily create a screencast to show how to do these things. One draw back - it takes forever to upload to blogger. I ended up uploading to You Tube, then embedding it into my Blogger...much faster!

For the classroom I could see myself using it to demonstrate how to use Glogster or bookr. I always model how to do something, but many students forget and this would be great for them to go back and re-watch the steps.

I want to become a bit more proficient at this so I will definitely be experimenting with this some more. Don't be surprised if you find more screencast video examples.

Thing #7 Video Resources

I liked using Google the best for searching for videos. Although, most of the videos I found were posted on You Tube I was amazed at how many videos there are out there. Another plus, you can download the Google videos to your iPod. Another possible use for the iTouch in class. I am so used to using Discovery Education to find video or clips to use in class or in Flipcharts. It's always nice to have another resource option.

Many of the videos I tried watching on the National Archives Video Collection were no longer available....although I bet if I tried You Tube I would probably find them. PBS Video had some great videos,but many were very long. (I decided to not post those.) I found a lot of animal videos and this will definitely come in handy when we discuss animal adaptations.

I found another great video on moon phases and one on adverbs.