Since I started blogging and joined Twitter I have come across numerous blogs, many of which I have already posted about in the past couple months. Today though I want to provide some links to Blogs that I subscribed too. Some are new, some are old; so here is a chance for you to start your own discovery and focus your attention on some blogs that offer great opinions, ideas, resources, suggestions, and the occasional asking for assistance. These are in no particular order.
Teachers as Technology Trailblazers - Created and updated by Kristen Swanson. - Started in July of 2009. Offers Links and resources for edicational technology.
Educational Technology Guy - Created and updated by David Andrade - A good mix of resources, thoughts, ideas, and the occasional humor. Liked the post about College supplies in the 80's and today.
Teach Paperless - Nominated for some edublogs and great discussion topics related to 21st Century education. Shelly Blake-Plock has been posting since February of 2009.
School Principal Blog - Great blog by Deron Durflinger with perspectives from a secondary school principal.
The Techno Tiger - Fairly new to the Blogging landscape, but you can tell her interest in blogging is really taking off. Started Blog in November and finished 2009 with 3 post. In January alone she has 13...definately increasing her posting. Provides great personal thoughts on technology, blogging and education. Her views relating to the 30 Goals Challenge (More on this Blogger Monday) are great and possibly give you some ideas as well.
Edurati - Where Policy Meets Pedagogy - A great blog discussing all things education...not necessarily technology related.
Learning With E's - Been Nominated for Edublogs Awards the past two years. Offers some great resources and thoughts about ELearning and Distance Education, as well as a focus on the growth of 21st Century Education.
EdTechSwami - A great read for all things education and many things technology. Enjoyed the recent post of the students letter about blocking websites....very true. EdTechSwami is the creation of Christopher Rogers
EdTechSandyK - Recent post is asking for ideas about an IPod/MP3/Pdocasting Initiative. Do you have any? Let her know. You can also follow on Twitter.
Learning is Life - A great blog with daily tales about teaching and education. A very creatice approach by Russ Goerend to blogging about life as a teacher.
iLearn Technology - A great blog by Kelly Tenkely who was nominated and won an Edublog Award. A recent post had the idea of starting a Blogging Alliance. Great idea and I joined. Definately worth visiting.
ITEACH - Web 2.0 in Language and Composition. Great resources and great stories from Andrew Marcinek about teaching and technology. Also received a nomination for Best New Blog
Digital Natives in the Classroom - A blog maintained by Jason Suter and a new Blogger, but a motivated one. Great ideas and great "Ah Ha" moments posted to his blog. A teacher who is definately seeing the impacts of technology integration and is sharing his experiences with all of us.
Technology Chatter - A great blog that offers a lot of resources for technology integration and a Wiki related to SmartBoard Resources. A most recent post surveyed her PLN to discover the impact it had on them. Very interesting Blog by Dodie Ainslie
Social Tech - This is the Beta Generation - A great read by Josie Fraser that has a lot to do with Ditigal Citizenship and Digital Literacy. Great post and great reads. Highly recommend for getting a dose of thought provoking ideas.
Technology - A great blog by Melissa Edwards. Very helpful to me in providing resoources for the New FLIP Camera that I purchased. Lots of great resources shared from personal experiences and searches on the Internet to assist teachers.
Well, there are 16. If this list was not enough Check out the Best 100 Education Blogs of 2009 or the List of the Top 200 Education Blogs
Take this opportunity and focus your attention on these Bloggers. Comment on them, follow them, subscribe to them...but whatever you do, enjoy and share them!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Think Twice Thursday #2 - SNWYS
Not as much a resource today, but thoughts on my mind. Something to "Think Twice" about. Social Networking is changing the landscape and nature of the average teenager and therefore is changing education. Social Networking is opening the door to more and more ideas, concepts, resources, people, and knowledge that educators SHOULD share with their students, and districts should allow their teachers to use. It seems as though Social Networking and Web 2.0 are stuck behind the dam that is fear, and those that want to inegrate the technology into their classrooms, are picking at the dam with a screw driver hoping for it to crack and flood schools with these valuable resources.
It seems in education we are always fighting for or against change. Change in how we teach, what we teach, when we teach, who we teach, and even why we teach. What is interesting is that you can respond to all this with one simple statement - "For The Students." It is why we do what we do. It is why we fight change we hate, and embrace change we love; because as educators we know what is best for our students in our schools. In my opinion what is best for our students right now, with this generation, is embracing Web 2.0 and Social Networking...as learning tools.
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Social Bookmarking, Blogging, Wikis, etc. These are great Social tools. These are great Networking Tools. These are great Educational Tools. What they really are is the next phase in education..."Social Networking With Your Students"
I use Twitter to be educated and informed. Shouldn't students be using it for the same purposes? Sure they will use it socially, but part of our job is to get them to see how it can be used professionally and encourage the use in that manner. I use Facebook, in part to stay in contact with students who have graduated, but also be a professional reference for them as they grow older (I get messages monthly: "Hey Mr. Zimmer, I listed you as a reference on a job application - How would I know that without our professional student-teacher relationship on Facebook?). I always told my kids that when they are 35 I would still be Mr. Zimmer or Coach Zimmer.
Facebook at the same time could be used professionally by schools and districts; a place to share stories and announcements about your school or district. Parents generally feel out of the loop as their children get older through the educational system. I often wonder the percentage of parents that have Facebook...has to be over 50%...easily.
Facebook could be a place for students to share ideas. Just recently we had a student create a MacBeth Facebook Fan Page for her project. Imagine the possiblities....Fan Pages all over Facebook over historical people, events, places, books, etc...all created by high school students with an edcuational purpose. Imagine hundreds/thousands joining this page. Sure beats a posterboard!
MySpace started out as a place to share music...why not let it be that way for students. Encourage students to create and share music online. Quite a few famous musicians were discovered because of their MySpace page. Our students are creative. Many students want to share their own ideas and knowledge about the world and life. As educators we should be encouraging this free expression through blogging and Wiki's. We don't have to know how to use it. They will figure it out...but we need to share the idea and concept with them!
Integrating this technology will always fall back on the teachers. The handling of the technology will always fall back on the teachers. Teachers, Administrators, and myself get worried more about the 5% who will abuse the technology negatively, then the 95% that will use the technology positively. But I have glossed over vision. I see the positive before I see the negative. Part of the solution is to constently share the good that students do with the technology, so that when a student negatively does use the technology, schools and districts have way more positives to share and overshadow the negativity and that Social Networking With Your Students is worth the fear and "risk." Especially if your district can develop policies that encourage and enhance their use in safe and productive ways.
So "Think Twice" about Social Networking With Your Students. I know I am. What about you?
It seems in education we are always fighting for or against change. Change in how we teach, what we teach, when we teach, who we teach, and even why we teach. What is interesting is that you can respond to all this with one simple statement - "For The Students." It is why we do what we do. It is why we fight change we hate, and embrace change we love; because as educators we know what is best for our students in our schools. In my opinion what is best for our students right now, with this generation, is embracing Web 2.0 and Social Networking...as learning tools.
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Social Bookmarking, Blogging, Wikis, etc. These are great Social tools. These are great Networking Tools. These are great Educational Tools. What they really are is the next phase in education..."Social Networking With Your Students"
I use Twitter to be educated and informed. Shouldn't students be using it for the same purposes? Sure they will use it socially, but part of our job is to get them to see how it can be used professionally and encourage the use in that manner. I use Facebook, in part to stay in contact with students who have graduated, but also be a professional reference for them as they grow older (I get messages monthly: "Hey Mr. Zimmer, I listed you as a reference on a job application - How would I know that without our professional student-teacher relationship on Facebook?). I always told my kids that when they are 35 I would still be Mr. Zimmer or Coach Zimmer.
Facebook at the same time could be used professionally by schools and districts; a place to share stories and announcements about your school or district. Parents generally feel out of the loop as their children get older through the educational system. I often wonder the percentage of parents that have Facebook...has to be over 50%...easily.
Facebook could be a place for students to share ideas. Just recently we had a student create a MacBeth Facebook Fan Page for her project. Imagine the possiblities....Fan Pages all over Facebook over historical people, events, places, books, etc...all created by high school students with an edcuational purpose. Imagine hundreds/thousands joining this page. Sure beats a posterboard!
MySpace started out as a place to share music...why not let it be that way for students. Encourage students to create and share music online. Quite a few famous musicians were discovered because of their MySpace page. Our students are creative. Many students want to share their own ideas and knowledge about the world and life. As educators we should be encouraging this free expression through blogging and Wiki's. We don't have to know how to use it. They will figure it out...but we need to share the idea and concept with them!
Integrating this technology will always fall back on the teachers. The handling of the technology will always fall back on the teachers. Teachers, Administrators, and myself get worried more about the 5% who will abuse the technology negatively, then the 95% that will use the technology positively. But I have glossed over vision. I see the positive before I see the negative. Part of the solution is to constently share the good that students do with the technology, so that when a student negatively does use the technology, schools and districts have way more positives to share and overshadow the negativity and that Social Networking With Your Students is worth the fear and "risk." Especially if your district can develop policies that encourage and enhance their use in safe and productive ways.
So "Think Twice" about Social Networking With Your Students. I know I am. What about you?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Two Activities Ideas - One with Tech, One Without
Tech Activity
As part of the guidelines for teachers at my school to receive technology equipment they have to create a blog or message board for their students to respond too. The issue is trying to get teachers to not see this as "just another thing we have to do" but an opportunity to provide for them. You constantly hear teachers saying I don't have time. Well, our students do have time, and lets make them use that time to help us.
So I challeneged our Math teachers who I am working with this trimester to create a Blog Post or a Message Board and have their students find a website that has tutorials, resources, videos, blogs, wikis, lessons, and/or acitivites related to what THEY are teaching that they can use in their classroom. The catch was that no student could repeat any website already submitted. This requires students to HAVE to read other students post and view the webpages other students had submitted. It also will make students want to work on the assignment so that they are not last and having to search harder for material. Our Math teachers are always saying that a lot of what they find on the Internet deals with K-8 Math. If that is the case, let your students see what they can find.
The students assignment is to post the URL, describe the website, and then comment on a resource or aspect of the website that they have used or could use in their classroom. Our teachers then will have math resources at their finger tips, and our teachers did very little of the leg work!
Non Tech Activity - 5 Finger Discount
A big movement in education is the idea of Exit Slips. Have your students draw their hand and on the hand they write 5 things from that days lesson, or even 5 things from the unit that they have learned. The top 5 students with the best 5 fingers receive a discount on their test...meaning if they miss a question you don't count it against them. Of course you can change the number of questions they get credit for, or even per finger if you want. You could also keep a tally and give students bonus points at the end of the grading period. How you use it is up to you. But most teenagers are aware of the terminology of "5 Finger Discount" so just announcing it in the classroom will catch their attention and it will probably be something they end up looking forward too. It also creates competition.
You could even take the information from the hands to create a test, quiz or an assignment. Use it how you can adapt it to your classroom, but if by chance a student does not have 5 fingers, make a drawing of your own hand and have it "handy" just in case....you never know. You have to meet the individual needs of your students.
As part of the guidelines for teachers at my school to receive technology equipment they have to create a blog or message board for their students to respond too. The issue is trying to get teachers to not see this as "just another thing we have to do" but an opportunity to provide for them. You constantly hear teachers saying I don't have time. Well, our students do have time, and lets make them use that time to help us.
So I challeneged our Math teachers who I am working with this trimester to create a Blog Post or a Message Board and have their students find a website that has tutorials, resources, videos, blogs, wikis, lessons, and/or acitivites related to what THEY are teaching that they can use in their classroom. The catch was that no student could repeat any website already submitted. This requires students to HAVE to read other students post and view the webpages other students had submitted. It also will make students want to work on the assignment so that they are not last and having to search harder for material. Our Math teachers are always saying that a lot of what they find on the Internet deals with K-8 Math. If that is the case, let your students see what they can find.
The students assignment is to post the URL, describe the website, and then comment on a resource or aspect of the website that they have used or could use in their classroom. Our teachers then will have math resources at their finger tips, and our teachers did very little of the leg work!
Non Tech Activity - 5 Finger Discount
A big movement in education is the idea of Exit Slips. Have your students draw their hand and on the hand they write 5 things from that days lesson, or even 5 things from the unit that they have learned. The top 5 students with the best 5 fingers receive a discount on their test...meaning if they miss a question you don't count it against them. Of course you can change the number of questions they get credit for, or even per finger if you want. You could also keep a tally and give students bonus points at the end of the grading period. How you use it is up to you. But most teenagers are aware of the terminology of "5 Finger Discount" so just announcing it in the classroom will catch their attention and it will probably be something they end up looking forward too. It also creates competition.
You could even take the information from the hands to create a test, quiz or an assignment. Use it how you can adapt it to your classroom, but if by chance a student does not have 5 fingers, make a drawing of your own hand and have it "handy" just in case....you never know. You have to meet the individual needs of your students.
Wednesday Wiki #2 - Open Thinking Wiki
The Open Thinking Wiki is the creation of Dr. Alec Couros, who is the ICT Coordinator of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina in Canada. The purpose of the Wiki is to compile resources for the courses that he teaches. There are categories that are useful to all educators: Digital Story Telling, CyberBullying, Digitial Citizenship, Videos, Emerging Technologies, etc.
I was introduced to the site via Twitter, but the site I was given a link to was the information on Digital Story Telling. A great resource for understanding the importance of DST in education, but also links to resources for using DST in your classroom as well as samples of other DST's that people and students have created. There are several that I thoroughly enjoyed watching, but I suggest that you look through and find the ones that interest you.
When trying to return to the home page for the Wiki, I was actually taken to another Wiki. It appears to be the Wiki for the course that he teaches at Regina University. It is worth looking at as well for information regarding Social Media and Open Education. The video on the front page is worth viewing....seems to be the feeling of a lot of teachers in education. Seems like an interesting course as well. Seeing the Syllabus on a Wiki like this provides me a great idea for trying to get teachers to do the same thing at our school. Creating on Word and uploading to a website is so 2008!
An informative Wiki, but also a Wiki that provides inspiration and ideas for how you could use a Wiki in your own classroom.
I found myself after school the other day watching many of the videos posted on this Wiki.
I was introduced to the site via Twitter, but the site I was given a link to was the information on Digital Story Telling. A great resource for understanding the importance of DST in education, but also links to resources for using DST in your classroom as well as samples of other DST's that people and students have created. There are several that I thoroughly enjoyed watching, but I suggest that you look through and find the ones that interest you.
When trying to return to the home page for the Wiki, I was actually taken to another Wiki. It appears to be the Wiki for the course that he teaches at Regina University. It is worth looking at as well for information regarding Social Media and Open Education. The video on the front page is worth viewing....seems to be the feeling of a lot of teachers in education. Seems like an interesting course as well. Seeing the Syllabus on a Wiki like this provides me a great idea for trying to get teachers to do the same thing at our school. Creating on Word and uploading to a website is so 2008!
An informative Wiki, but also a Wiki that provides inspiration and ideas for how you could use a Wiki in your own classroom.
I found myself after school the other day watching many of the videos posted on this Wiki.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The Hero Factory
I was introduced to The Hero Factory by a fellow co-worker. It is a website where visitors can create their own version of a Super Hero. Now, my first thought was big deal. Then she told me that students could use the hero that they created to write a story about their hero. Not a bad idea. But lets not stop there...so I started brainstorming....
1. Choose whether your hero is male or female
2. Choose facial characteristics - Hair, Eyes, Facial Hair
3. Choose your Upper Body Look - Shirts, Arms, Accessories, Emblems
4. Choose your Lower Body - Legs and Belt
5 Choose your Colors - Skin, Hair, Primary, Secondary, Detail
6. Choose your Abilities - Skin and Weapons (I wish their was more here, but there is not)
Click Finish and it Generates a Front Page of a Comic Book and a Name for your hero (Mine was rather simple...lacked any flare). You can then Make Another, Print it, or Download it to a JPG....see mine below!
What ideas do you have for using The Hero Factory in your classroom?
- Write a Poem about their Hero
- Create a math word problem using the Hero in the problem and the solution
- History teachers could have students create a biography of the hero based on historical events
- Geography teachers could have students create a map of the where the hero travels
- Economics teachers could have students write about the impact a Super Hero might have on the Economy.
- Sociology Teachers could use this website when they discuss heros and who our heros our
- Science teachers could talk about the scientific probablities of certain super hero powers
- Foreign Lanugage teachers could create a Super Hero and then create a story line for their hero in the language they are studying
- Business and marketing teachers could have students create a resume for their hero
- Create a massive story within your class using the students hereos. You could use Storybird or think of it like the game of telephone, but each student has to use their hero in their line of the story.
1. Choose whether your hero is male or female
2. Choose facial characteristics - Hair, Eyes, Facial Hair
3. Choose your Upper Body Look - Shirts, Arms, Accessories, Emblems
4. Choose your Lower Body - Legs and Belt
5 Choose your Colors - Skin, Hair, Primary, Secondary, Detail
6. Choose your Abilities - Skin and Weapons (I wish their was more here, but there is not)
Click Finish and it Generates a Front Page of a Comic Book and a Name for your hero (Mine was rather simple...lacked any flare). You can then Make Another, Print it, or Download it to a JPG....see mine below!
What ideas do you have for using The Hero Factory in your classroom?
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