Hands-On Activity
I already have a Moodle site for the courses I teach. I created a blog last year for the 23 Things course I took, one for this course, and a family blog. So, I thought I would try to create a Weebly. I really kind of liked it, and I might think about doing something like this in the future with my classes. Sort of combine the website and Moodle content. I really like Moodle, but there are some definite limitations to Moodle.
The Weebly I created was a personal/family one: Our Family Fun Times. One thing that I probably realized before, but was made even more aware of was the need to have some sort of organizational strategy in mind before creating pages. As I was creating it, I was thinking about ways I could organize a site that I might create for my students. I like the idea that a webpage (like the one created by Weebly) is a lot more visual than Moodle. Plus, students could just click to get to the particular page for the unit/activity instead of scrolling down to just find links to documents and such. Overall, much more visually appealing.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Thing #6
Digital Citizenship
Hoax Site #1
The first website I picked to evaluate was the Mankato (MN) Home Page. I picked this one because I went to Mankato, MN numerous times growing up to downhill ski at Mt. Kato. So, I thought it was humerous that Mankato has all cold connotations for me and the website was about how Mankato is a nice, balmy place year-round.
Credibility/Authority: can't really find; crazy disclaimer page that should give you an idea that this may not be a credible site
Accuracy: not accurate--can't verify this type of Minnesota weather
Reliability: there are ads on the page
Relevance: the information is so crazy sounding, that it doesn't seem like it would be very relevant
Date: says it's updated "the first Monday of every month"--that sounds sketchy
Sources Behind the Text: most of the links within the text that should probably go to external sources go to other pages within the same site
Scope and Purpose: the purpose of the page seems to be entertainment, not educational or informational
Hoax Site #2:
The second website I picked was The Taxonomy of Barney.
Credibility/Authority: from the Improbable Research group--this should give you a first hint
Accuracy: The information is based on the idea that Barney is actually a living creature (not just a person in a big purple suit). This obviously cannot be verified through other sources.
Reliability: the x-ray image included in the text is clearly a drawing
Relevance: the information in the site wouldn't be relevant to someone doing research in the area of dinosaurs or evolution (but it might be a fun article to read at the start of a unit as a humorus way to start the unit)
Date: It's dated 1995, which is pretty old for scientific journal articles (if you are trying to do research on anything current).
Sources Behind the Text: One link on the site takes you to Amazon for a book of collections of articles such as these. Reading the reviews, it shouldn't be hard to figure out this is an article written for entertainment.
Scope and Purpose: states that it is "research that makes people laugh and then think"
Two activities I can use in my classroom:
E-mail Netiquette: All students in our district received e-mail addresses this year through school (a Google service). Students were given directions in how to access this new account; however, they weren't given any guidelines about how to appropriately use e-mail. I'm assuming that most students already use e-mail (most of my students already had e-mail addresses, so this new one is simply one that isn't blocked at school during the school day). However, it would be nice to have students read over and talk about various e-mail netiquette issues. Then students would not only have an idea about what might be appropriate or not appropriate when sending e-mails to me as their high school teacher, but hopefully would be able to take some of that information with them as they leave high school and need to start e-mailing other people (potential employers, etc...)
Personal Information on the Web: Although the piece is a little old, the information and message is still very real: NBC Nightly News piece on Online Predators. We spend some time in class talking about posting personal information--students are required to create a blog as a part of a project during our ecology unit. So we talk about issues like your address name, using your full name, not posting a map to your house (since a map is part of the project), and other issues. I don't want to scare students, but I need them to know that there are real risks and that they need to be very careful about posting personal information.
Hoax Site #1
The first website I picked to evaluate was the Mankato (MN) Home Page. I picked this one because I went to Mankato, MN numerous times growing up to downhill ski at Mt. Kato. So, I thought it was humerous that Mankato has all cold connotations for me and the website was about how Mankato is a nice, balmy place year-round.
Credibility/Authority: can't really find; crazy disclaimer page that should give you an idea that this may not be a credible site
Accuracy: not accurate--can't verify this type of Minnesota weather
Reliability: there are ads on the page
Relevance: the information is so crazy sounding, that it doesn't seem like it would be very relevant
Date: says it's updated "the first Monday of every month"--that sounds sketchy
Sources Behind the Text: most of the links within the text that should probably go to external sources go to other pages within the same site
Scope and Purpose: the purpose of the page seems to be entertainment, not educational or informational
Hoax Site #2:
The second website I picked was The Taxonomy of Barney.
Credibility/Authority: from the Improbable Research group--this should give you a first hint
Accuracy: The information is based on the idea that Barney is actually a living creature (not just a person in a big purple suit). This obviously cannot be verified through other sources.
Reliability: the x-ray image included in the text is clearly a drawing
Relevance: the information in the site wouldn't be relevant to someone doing research in the area of dinosaurs or evolution (but it might be a fun article to read at the start of a unit as a humorus way to start the unit)
Date: It's dated 1995, which is pretty old for scientific journal articles (if you are trying to do research on anything current).
Sources Behind the Text: One link on the site takes you to Amazon for a book of collections of articles such as these. Reading the reviews, it shouldn't be hard to figure out this is an article written for entertainment.
Scope and Purpose: states that it is "research that makes people laugh and then think"
Two activities I can use in my classroom:
E-mail Netiquette: All students in our district received e-mail addresses this year through school (a Google service). Students were given directions in how to access this new account; however, they weren't given any guidelines about how to appropriately use e-mail. I'm assuming that most students already use e-mail (most of my students already had e-mail addresses, so this new one is simply one that isn't blocked at school during the school day). However, it would be nice to have students read over and talk about various e-mail netiquette issues. Then students would not only have an idea about what might be appropriate or not appropriate when sending e-mails to me as their high school teacher, but hopefully would be able to take some of that information with them as they leave high school and need to start e-mailing other people (potential employers, etc...)
Personal Information on the Web: Although the piece is a little old, the information and message is still very real: NBC Nightly News piece on Online Predators. We spend some time in class talking about posting personal information--students are required to create a blog as a part of a project during our ecology unit. So we talk about issues like your address name, using your full name, not posting a map to your house (since a map is part of the project), and other issues. I don't want to scare students, but I need them to know that there are real risks and that they need to be very careful about posting personal information.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Thing #5
Differentiated Learning
A couple things I already do in my teaching which meet the elements of differentiated instruction:
Several elements and materials are used to support instructional content...access to the content is seen as key. I try to use a variety of sources of information for my students. In addition, I try to have several "access points" for all the information: in class, online through school grading program, online at class Moodle site. Another thing I try to do it have the outline and presentation materials for the upcoming chapter available in advance. Then students can go online and fill in the outline before coming to class. Likewise, they could choose to simply listen during class (or just jot down the highlights), and then access the materials online later to fill in the outline or study materials.
Clarify key concepts and generalizations. One thing I do for my Anatomy and Physiology students is provide a "Unit Overview" sheet for each body system we cover. This sheet has a list of key concepts, focus areas, and learning objectives for that particular body system. It also has a list of due dates for the unit and further instructions/details for particular assignments.
Diverse Learning
Prentice Hall Interactive Textbook: I think that I may have stumbled on that website at some previous time, but I forgot about all the cool stuff that is on this site. I use a companion site frequently in my Anatomy & Physiology class. But this biology site has animations, links to other references, self-tests, and other activities. These would make excellent study materials for a student who sort of understands the materials, but really needs more time to process and practice.
Universal Design for Learning
One of the resources I found on the Universal Design for Learning: Strategies, Tools, and Resources wiki was the "100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner." This was such a cool list! I recognized a few of the resources on the list as things that I already use. But there were so many resources on the list that looked like they would be very helpful for my students. For instance, under the "Interaction" heading, I visited "Flashcard Machine" and set up an account. I also checked out Quia and Quizlet. Some of my anatomy & physiology students are really struggling with ways to study. I think these flashcards would be GREAT for them to access. We've talked about Quizlet in class before, but I think that if I actually showed them some flashcards, that might be the impetus some need to actually go there and try it out. I could even make it an ongoing assignment for some students to create flashcards that are individualized for our class for each unit. That would be a fantastic resource for my students!
Text-to-Audio Conversion
A couple things I already do in my teaching which meet the elements of differentiated instruction:
Several elements and materials are used to support instructional content...access to the content is seen as key. I try to use a variety of sources of information for my students. In addition, I try to have several "access points" for all the information: in class, online through school grading program, online at class Moodle site. Another thing I try to do it have the outline and presentation materials for the upcoming chapter available in advance. Then students can go online and fill in the outline before coming to class. Likewise, they could choose to simply listen during class (or just jot down the highlights), and then access the materials online later to fill in the outline or study materials.
Clarify key concepts and generalizations. One thing I do for my Anatomy and Physiology students is provide a "Unit Overview" sheet for each body system we cover. This sheet has a list of key concepts, focus areas, and learning objectives for that particular body system. It also has a list of due dates for the unit and further instructions/details for particular assignments.
Diverse Learning
Prentice Hall Interactive Textbook: I think that I may have stumbled on that website at some previous time, but I forgot about all the cool stuff that is on this site. I use a companion site frequently in my Anatomy & Physiology class. But this biology site has animations, links to other references, self-tests, and other activities. These would make excellent study materials for a student who sort of understands the materials, but really needs more time to process and practice.
Universal Design for Learning
One of the resources I found on the Universal Design for Learning: Strategies, Tools, and Resources wiki was the "100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner." This was such a cool list! I recognized a few of the resources on the list as things that I already use. But there were so many resources on the list that looked like they would be very helpful for my students. For instance, under the "Interaction" heading, I visited "Flashcard Machine" and set up an account. I also checked out Quia and Quizlet. Some of my anatomy & physiology students are really struggling with ways to study. I think these flashcards would be GREAT for them to access. We've talked about Quizlet in class before, but I think that if I actually showed them some flashcards, that might be the impetus some need to actually go there and try it out. I could even make it an ongoing assignment for some students to create flashcards that are individualized for our class for each unit. That would be a fantastic resource for my students!
Text-to-Audio Conversion
I tried the VozMe program with some text, but I found it very difficult to understand the speaker. So, I installed NaturalReader and found that much easier to understand. I have had a number of students over the years that have had reading and writing difficulties. I know that school owns several copies of Dragon NaturallySpeaking software (which I also personally own--invaluable for transcribing dissertation interviews!!), but I don't know if they have some sort of reading software. I would assume they do... I think that this would be another way for students to be able to hear what they are learning--adding to the learning styles and hopefully improving how they learn.
Thing #4
Thinkfinity
Activity #1: Sunburn, Sunscreen, and Cancer
This activity was one of the Science NetLinks from AAAS. It was a nice activity relating skin cancer and sun exposure. In my Anatomy & Physiology class, we like to talk about how "no tan is a safe tan." But this activity had sections where kids could classify their skin type and relate it to their risk of skin cancer with sun exposure. It also had a neat part of the activity where kids calculated their sun exposure related to their geographical location and time of the year. The assessment ideas were also interesting. It reminded me of the PBL course that I went through this summer. Overall, I really liked this activity. I will be sure to add it to my Delicious links and try it out next fall when we talk about the skin.
Activity #2: Asparagus Odor
I couldn't pass up this activity :) I love to increase the "gross factor" with my students, and this is just the way. It seemed like a nice way to add some variety into a lesson--a short podcast and an article. And when we talk about genetics, it's always nice to have examples that don't include visual physical characteristics (hair color, eye color, etc...). This would be a very easy lesson to incorporate. As I was looking through some of the lessons, I noticed that a lot of the lessons were in this "short & easy" format. I liked that!
Activity #1: Sunburn, Sunscreen, and Cancer
This activity was one of the Science NetLinks from AAAS. It was a nice activity relating skin cancer and sun exposure. In my Anatomy & Physiology class, we like to talk about how "no tan is a safe tan." But this activity had sections where kids could classify their skin type and relate it to their risk of skin cancer with sun exposure. It also had a neat part of the activity where kids calculated their sun exposure related to their geographical location and time of the year. The assessment ideas were also interesting. It reminded me of the PBL course that I went through this summer. Overall, I really liked this activity. I will be sure to add it to my Delicious links and try it out next fall when we talk about the skin.
Activity #2: Asparagus Odor
I couldn't pass up this activity :) I love to increase the "gross factor" with my students, and this is just the way. It seemed like a nice way to add some variety into a lesson--a short podcast and an article. And when we talk about genetics, it's always nice to have examples that don't include visual physical characteristics (hair color, eye color, etc...). This would be a very easy lesson to incorporate. As I was looking through some of the lessons, I noticed that a lot of the lessons were in this "short & easy" format. I liked that!
Thing #3
Skype AssignmentI previously had a Skype account, so I just used that account. I tried to send Ron a message, but I couldn't find his contact information. I did a lot of searching and found lots of Houtmans other places (and I searched for EduTechGeek too), but no Ron. So, I sent my brother a message.
I called my parents using Skype. We actually used Skype a lot last fall when my parents were in Ghana for the semester. We would drag the couch over in front of the computer so our two toddlers could crawl up on the couch and talk to and wave to their "papa & grandma."
As far as using Skype in the classroom...I can see a lot of potential for getting "expert" speakers to come into the class without having to travel. I teach sections of Honors Biology and Anatomy & Physiology, so using Skype would be a great way to get scientists from all over to be able to conference with us. However, I can see that it might become a classroom management issue. I don't think that the students at the high school currently have the ability to get on Skype at school (I think they can at the elementary/middle school though). There would be a need for some ground rules to be set and followed regarding the use of Skype and other services like that during class time. These are definitely issues that we need to address since we are planning on going to a 1:1 laptop program next year.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Thing #2
Google Templates
I recently created a Google Form for allowing my students to take a short "private" poll regarding a field trip opportunity (going to the Bodies Revealed Exhibition at the Public Museum). This was a way that I could get students to honestly tell me whether or not they really wanted to go, if they could/wanted to pay, and if they would be willing to create a class "scholarship fund" for those class members that couldn't pay.
Google Docs Shared Document
I created a PowerPoint presentation by uploading a presentation that I had already made. I was actually very surprised that all the formatting that I had used when originally making the presentation stayed intact when I uploaded it. I was under the assumption that there were big limitations on formatting when using Google Docs. However, I then uploaded a Word document I had earlier created and tried to edit it. Then I ran into formatting issues. But, if you don't care as much about formatting issues, it is a great place to put things for multiple people to be able to edit. I've actually used it outside of school with people to help plan events and other things.
Reflections
I have found Google Docs very helpful for using in my classroom and teaching. When I first tried it with my students several years ago, we had some major headaches trying to get everyone signed up and connected. But, once we used it for an assignment (it was a small group research project), I immediately had students ask me if they could use it for a group presentation they had to make for a different class.
What I have used more often in my classes lately is the "Form" of Google Docs. Just last week I had students fill out a form with their e-mail addresses so that I could invite them to a Dropbox folder I had created. I've also used it for class surveys, to collect information about students, and for small brainstorming activities. Our school is going to a 1:1 laptop program next year, so I can see the Forms function sort of like those little clickers that you can get. Of course, you can't necessarily "track" students (which maybe you can with those clickers?), but maybe you can. Something else to learn sometime...
Thing #1
Microsoft Office Shortcuts
Here is the screen shot of my shortcuts: Shortcuts Practice
Some of the other shortcuts that I've used:
Print Screen: I still use this occasionally. However, now that I learned about Jing (at the Introductory session class), I LOVE Jing! I have spent way too many hours of my life pasting and croping screen shots in order to just get small things copied into step-by-step instructions for people. I am so excited to have more opportunities to use the simple "copy" option in Jing and the screencast option in Jing rather than Print Screen. So, I guess this one isn't a shortcut that I'm thinking I'll use all that often any more...oh well...
F12: I like this option. I seem to save files in different formats and with different names quite frequently. This seems like it might be a handy shortcut in the future.
Control Z: I already knew that Control+Y was Redo. So now having this reminder that Control+Z is Undo will be a nice compliment to that. I use lots of diagrams with some of my classes, and it seems that I always spend a lot of time formatting those diagrams or adding labels to them. These two shortcuts (Control+Y and Control+Z) are very handy for that kind of work.
Delicious
My Delicious link: Kara's Delicious Page
I already had a Delicious account prior to starting this course. I really like Delicious; however, I don't think that I really utilize it as much as I could. Currently, it seems like I simply add links to my account and tag them. But, I rarely go back and actually look at those links. I think that if I went back through and started organizing the links better, I might actually find that there are sites in there that I want to go to and look at again. I didn't know anything about Tag Bundles previously. I can see some potential there for grouping my own links. And also some potential for grouping a number of sites and sharing them with students rather than creating individual links for them to follow on something like Moodle for a particular assignment.
Here is the screen shot of my shortcuts: Shortcuts Practice
Some of the other shortcuts that I've used:
Print Screen: I still use this occasionally. However, now that I learned about Jing (at the Introductory session class), I LOVE Jing! I have spent way too many hours of my life pasting and croping screen shots in order to just get small things copied into step-by-step instructions for people. I am so excited to have more opportunities to use the simple "copy" option in Jing and the screencast option in Jing rather than Print Screen. So, I guess this one isn't a shortcut that I'm thinking I'll use all that often any more...oh well...
F12: I like this option. I seem to save files in different formats and with different names quite frequently. This seems like it might be a handy shortcut in the future.
Control Z: I already knew that Control+Y was Redo. So now having this reminder that Control+Z is Undo will be a nice compliment to that. I use lots of diagrams with some of my classes, and it seems that I always spend a lot of time formatting those diagrams or adding labels to them. These two shortcuts (Control+Y and Control+Z) are very handy for that kind of work.
Delicious
My Delicious link: Kara's Delicious Page
I already had a Delicious account prior to starting this course. I really like Delicious; however, I don't think that I really utilize it as much as I could. Currently, it seems like I simply add links to my account and tag them. But, I rarely go back and actually look at those links. I think that if I went back through and started organizing the links better, I might actually find that there are sites in there that I want to go to and look at again. I didn't know anything about Tag Bundles previously. I can see some potential there for grouping my own links. And also some potential for grouping a number of sites and sharing them with students rather than creating individual links for them to follow on something like Moodle for a particular assignment.
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