Screencasting
I decided to alter the directions for this assignment slightly so that I can actually use my screencast immediately (I didn't do something I found on Thinkfinity, but it is an interactive site). I have Jury Duty starting on January 3, so this might be something that I need to use right away. The topic that we will be studying is cell division (mitosis). One of the activities that I've had students do is to look at an onion root tip under the microscope and identify the stages of the cell cycle/mitosis each of the cells is in. Students do alright with this, but not all students always understand what they are looking at. So, in addition to actually manipulating the microscope to look at cells, I found an interactive web site that shows images of cells in various stages of the cell cycle/mitosis, asks students to pick which stage the cell is in, and then provides feedback for students on whether or not their choice was correct. So, since I might be absent when we would normally review the activity, I decided to make a screen cast that would cover the same things that I would when reviewing the activity.
Here is the link to my screencast: Mitosis Activity Instructions Screencast
Overall, I enjoyed making the screencast. I never like to hear my voice recorded, and it makes me nervous. But, I'm sure that I would grow more comfortable with it over time. And I got good feedback (mostly because my colleague was so impressed with the whole concept of screencasting). One bonus of making this is that I think that I will make a few extra screen shots of activities that students will be completing the first week back from break in case I actually have to be gone for several days for jury duty.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Thing #20
Visual Learning
I think these tools might be helpful in a number of ways. First, a concept mapping program like Bubbl.us is similar to the Inspiration program I have used with
students before. It would be a great way to have students organize their thinking and concepts for a particular unit. I think that Wordle would be a lot of fun to use with some text. I'm not exactly sure how I would use it in an assignment (besides just for fun). But, I know that I have seen Wordle images hanging in the English room down the hall from me that students created as a part of an assignment. They look good from the hallway :)
Bubbl.us Diagram
I created a Bubbl.us diagram of the concepts of nature of science (NOS), one of the main components of my dissertation research.
I created a Bubbl.us diagram of the concepts of nature of science (NOS), one of the main components of my dissertation research.Wordle
I created a Wordle from Genesis 1...I really like it!
I think these tools might be helpful in a number of ways. First, a concept mapping program like Bubbl.us is similar to the Inspiration program I have used with
students before. It would be a great way to have students organize their thinking and concepts for a particular unit. I think that Wordle would be a lot of fun to use with some text. I'm not exactly sure how I would use it in an assignment (besides just for fun). But, I know that I have seen Wordle images hanging in the English room down the hall from me that students created as a part of an assignment. They look good from the hallway :)Thing #19
Virtual Classrooms
I have a couple of ideas about how I can extend my classroom. I currently have a Moodle site for all of the classes that I teach. I have really liked Moodle, and I have gotten comments from students where they tell me it's so nice to have all the class "stuff" available to them online and how they wished that every teacher would do that. One of the most used things that I find on my Moodle site is the course PowerPoint presentations that I've uploaded. Since a lot of what I teach is very visual (diagrams, images, etc...), I've had students download the PowerPoint, e-mail it to themselves, open the e-mail on their phone, and then flip through the slides like flash cards (most students did this during the skeletal and muscular system units since we had lab practical portions to their tests). When I told a fellow teacher about this, the first thing they were concerned with was students using this to cheat. However, I just really didn't think that would be a problem. I monitor kids very closely during tests, so I don't think it happens often. I was just more impressed with their use of technology to enhance their learning.
Another thing I would like to do is create a class website (Weebly, PBWorks, or something like that) and then connect my Moodle site to that. I found that the Weebly site I created would allow me to post more content on the actual site (rather than just links to documents and other resources). Sometimes I feel a little "trapped" by my Moodle site. I think that creating this Virtual Classroom would help meet a number of the NETS-S for my students including Research and Information Fluency, Communication and Collaboration, Digital Citizenship, and Technology Operations and Concepts.
Navigating the Land of Online Learning
The "Navigating the Land of Online Learning" activity was a nice summary of some of the questions, issues, problems, and advantages to incorporating online learning components into a course. To be a succesful online student, there are a variety of skills you need to have and questions you need to ask. I think that one of the biggest skill an online student needs to have is self-motivation or self-direction. As opposed to sitting in a daily face-to-face class where the teacher might have the due date up on the board, announcing it in class, forcing students to write it in their planners, and then requiring things to happen during the 50 minute (or whatever time frame) period of time each day. A virtual class gives students the opportunity to be more flexible with their time; however, it does require some self-motivation and self-regulation. I've moved to having 5:00pm or 9:00pm or midnight deadlines. I have found student responses to be very positive towards this since it recognizes that students are busy and need to sort of prioritize things they need to do in their life. In addition, I get a lot fewer complaints about due dates which has made my life easier.
One more thing that I think will be required and new for "new" online learners is a technology learning curve. Since a lot of the learning will be done at home or some other location where the tech person/help desk does not live, students will have to figure out what to do with something breaks down and how they are going to deal with technology problems.
I do not think that online learning should completely replace face-to-face classrooms. I haven't really enjoyed all the aspects of the completely online classes that I have taken. However, I do think that there are some great things from the face-to-face classroom and the online/virtual classroom that can be combined nicely into a blended classroom.
I have a couple of ideas about how I can extend my classroom. I currently have a Moodle site for all of the classes that I teach. I have really liked Moodle, and I have gotten comments from students where they tell me it's so nice to have all the class "stuff" available to them online and how they wished that every teacher would do that. One of the most used things that I find on my Moodle site is the course PowerPoint presentations that I've uploaded. Since a lot of what I teach is very visual (diagrams, images, etc...), I've had students download the PowerPoint, e-mail it to themselves, open the e-mail on their phone, and then flip through the slides like flash cards (most students did this during the skeletal and muscular system units since we had lab practical portions to their tests). When I told a fellow teacher about this, the first thing they were concerned with was students using this to cheat. However, I just really didn't think that would be a problem. I monitor kids very closely during tests, so I don't think it happens often. I was just more impressed with their use of technology to enhance their learning.
Another thing I would like to do is create a class website (Weebly, PBWorks, or something like that) and then connect my Moodle site to that. I found that the Weebly site I created would allow me to post more content on the actual site (rather than just links to documents and other resources). Sometimes I feel a little "trapped" by my Moodle site. I think that creating this Virtual Classroom would help meet a number of the NETS-S for my students including Research and Information Fluency, Communication and Collaboration, Digital Citizenship, and Technology Operations and Concepts.
Navigating the Land of Online Learning
The "Navigating the Land of Online Learning" activity was a nice summary of some of the questions, issues, problems, and advantages to incorporating online learning components into a course. To be a succesful online student, there are a variety of skills you need to have and questions you need to ask. I think that one of the biggest skill an online student needs to have is self-motivation or self-direction. As opposed to sitting in a daily face-to-face class where the teacher might have the due date up on the board, announcing it in class, forcing students to write it in their planners, and then requiring things to happen during the 50 minute (or whatever time frame) period of time each day. A virtual class gives students the opportunity to be more flexible with their time; however, it does require some self-motivation and self-regulation. I've moved to having 5:00pm or 9:00pm or midnight deadlines. I have found student responses to be very positive towards this since it recognizes that students are busy and need to sort of prioritize things they need to do in their life. In addition, I get a lot fewer complaints about due dates which has made my life easier.
One more thing that I think will be required and new for "new" online learners is a technology learning curve. Since a lot of the learning will be done at home or some other location where the tech person/help desk does not live, students will have to figure out what to do with something breaks down and how they are going to deal with technology problems.
I do not think that online learning should completely replace face-to-face classrooms. I haven't really enjoyed all the aspects of the completely online classes that I have taken. However, I do think that there are some great things from the face-to-face classroom and the online/virtual classroom that can be combined nicely into a blended classroom.
Thing #18
Staying Informed
I picked the iGoogle reader format for RSS feeds. I selected a number of subscriptions and blogs to follow. Most of these, for now, were personal and news feeds. But, I think that I could organize my feeds and folders to include a number of educational blogs. I've had this Google Reader account for a while. The biggest problem I've encountered is the same one that I encounter with a lot of other things in my life: not enough time! However, I do think there are some very nice ways that these could be incorporated as a resource for my teaching and my students' learning. One very interesting and ongoing assignment that I could set up would be a "Biology in the News" assignment (or "Anatomy & Physiology in the News") where students would have to read and summarize one news article/journal article. I've done something like this in the past with the Environmental Science course I taught for several years. However, it wasn't a huge success. But, I think that if I had kids set up a Google Reader account (since they already have Google Docs, it would logistically be the easiest one to use), I could have then subscribe to several news feeds related to the class they were in and subtopics that they were most interested in. Then not only are students keeping up to date with news and discoveries in that area, but I also benefit by reading their summaries and really learning something new while I did that (rather than read 30-90 reports about the same thing).
I picked the iGoogle reader format for RSS feeds. I selected a number of subscriptions and blogs to follow. Most of these, for now, were personal and news feeds. But, I think that I could organize my feeds and folders to include a number of educational blogs. I've had this Google Reader account for a while. The biggest problem I've encountered is the same one that I encounter with a lot of other things in my life: not enough time! However, I do think there are some very nice ways that these could be incorporated as a resource for my teaching and my students' learning. One very interesting and ongoing assignment that I could set up would be a "Biology in the News" assignment (or "Anatomy & Physiology in the News") where students would have to read and summarize one news article/journal article. I've done something like this in the past with the Environmental Science course I taught for several years. However, it wasn't a huge success. But, I think that if I had kids set up a Google Reader account (since they already have Google Docs, it would logistically be the easiest one to use), I could have then subscribe to several news feeds related to the class they were in and subtopics that they were most interested in. Then not only are students keeping up to date with news and discoveries in that area, but I also benefit by reading their summaries and really learning something new while I did that (rather than read 30-90 reports about the same thing).
Thing #17
Research and Reference Tools
Student Research
I selected the InfoTrac Junior Edition and InfoTrac Student Edition databases below to compare/contrast. I thought that the appropriateness, usability, content, and credibility for each of them was pretty good. I teach in the high school, so I woul
d probably have a more difficult time determining if something was really appropriate or not (reading level-wise, content-wise, etc...) for an elementary student. But I did notice more Weekly Reader articles and such show up in the Junior edition which makes sense to me. Overall, I really like these types of search databases...especially when students can choose to search for just full-text documents. That puts all these resources at students' fingertips.
Advanced Research
I used the Academic One File to find an article on bacteria. I have used a lot of these research databases in my own
research (graduate school stuff). And I have occasionally used these for finding articles for my classroom. One of the problems that I have is that since I teach science, once I get to these upper-level articles, some of the material goes way beyond (content-wise) what the vast majority of my students can really understand. But, I have tried several different guided activities to help my students "wade" through an academic article. That being said, not all the articles are way beyond reach for my students. For example, I can find Science articles that most students can understand (or at least understand most of it...maybe with a little extra coaching).
Works Cited 2
As a Calvin graduate and frequent user of the site, I choose KnightCite to use to create a citation for a journal article. I found that KnightCite actually is a better citation machine than CitationMachine when it comes to some APA formatting issues (there were even some formatting errors in the tutorial video using CitationMachine--Stephen King's entire first name was typed out when it should have just been an initial, S.). Here is my citation:
Overbye, D. (2010, December 14). Poisoned debate encircles a microbe study's result [Electronic version]. The New York Times, D4(L).
Student Research
I selected the InfoTrac Junior Edition and InfoTrac Student Edition databases below to compare/contrast. I thought that the appropriateness, usability, content, and credibility for each of them was pretty good. I teach in the high school, so I woul
d probably have a more difficult time determining if something was really appropriate or not (reading level-wise, content-wise, etc...) for an elementary student. But I did notice more Weekly Reader articles and such show up in the Junior edition which makes sense to me. Overall, I really like these types of search databases...especially when students can choose to search for just full-text documents. That puts all these resources at students' fingertips.Advanced Research
I used the Academic One File to find an article on bacteria. I have used a lot of these research databases in my own
research (graduate school stuff). And I have occasionally used these for finding articles for my classroom. One of the problems that I have is that since I teach science, once I get to these upper-level articles, some of the material goes way beyond (content-wise) what the vast majority of my students can really understand. But, I have tried several different guided activities to help my students "wade" through an academic article. That being said, not all the articles are way beyond reach for my students. For example, I can find Science articles that most students can understand (or at least understand most of it...maybe with a little extra coaching). Works Cited 1
I used the MEL database (Academic One File) to search for an article about the new bacteria scientists have found that used arsenic as a component
in its DNA. I needed to click on the News Article tab to find a super current news article related to this current topic. Here is my citation in APA format:
I used the MEL database (Academic One File) to search for an article about the new bacteria scientists have found that used arsenic as a component
in its DNA. I needed to click on the News Article tab to find a super current news article related to this current topic. Here is my citation in APA format:Overbye, D. (Dec 14, 2010). Poisoned debate encircles a microbe study's result. The New York Times, p.D4(L). Retrieved December 19, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale:http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=lom_accessmi
Works Cited 2
As a Calvin graduate and frequent user of the site, I choose KnightCite to use to create a citation for a journal article. I found that KnightCite actually is a better citation machine than CitationMachine when it comes to some APA formatting issues (there were even some formatting errors in the tutorial video using CitationMachine--Stephen King's entire first name was typed out when it should have just been an initial, S.). Here is my citation:
Overbye, D. (2010, December 14). Poisoned debate encircles a microbe study's result [Electronic version]. The New York Times, D4(L).
Thing #16
Professional Learning Networks
LearnPort
I registered for LearnPort for the first time in one of the earlier "things" that talked about the NetTrekker. I looked in there for a while for more resources and lesson plans. There is a lot of material accessible there! This time, I explored the courses that were offered. It was really neat!! I had to renew my teaching certificate again this past summer, and I was reminded about the continuuing education requirement portion of my teaching certification. Since I am still finishing up my dissertation, I've never had a problem getting enough credits for renewing my certificate. But as I look into the future, I will need to start to accumulate credits or SB-CEUs. This was a great resource! And some of the courses looked like they would be great content review resources. I will definitely be using this in the future.
Social Networking
I have both a Twitter and Facebook account. And to be honest, I've never used the Twitter account except for the assignments I had to do as a part of my 23 Things course (I think that's why I signed up). I also never really used my Facebook account. I know that there are people (lots of my friends) who absolutely LOVE Facebook and are on all the time. I just don't feel the need to be that connected. And, I don't really care (nothing personal) if someone just put cookies in the oven or if they just noticed that it's really cloudy. I just don't have enough time in my day to spend a lot of time on either of those sites. That being said, I do think that there might be a place for some type of class Facebook account. I don't know of any high school teachers that have one for their class, but I know several elementary school teachers who have pages for their students' parents to access and find out what's going on and to communicate with each other. I usually try to think that I'm pretty open to technology, but I'm just not sure that I'm ready to venture into that area yet.
I just finished watching the AdobeConnect presentation for this thing, and I would like to ammend my answers/opinion about Twitter. I do like the idea of subscribing to other "smart" people's Twitter feeds and then to be able to scroll through them occasionally and glean some good information. I just do NOT want to know when people have coffee, notice it's sunny, wash their car, and other mundane stuff.
MACUL
I joined the MACUL space and poked around in a few places. This has been something that I've thought about over the years, but I figured that most of the members were probably "super duper" tech people and not "regular" classroom teachers. But, as a part of the PBL training I took this summer, I think that I might be a part of a MACUL presentation or poster session or something this coming year. So, maybe this is a good way for me to start being involved in an organization such as this.
Professional Organization
I chose to research International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (Unfortunately, there was no link attached to the resources list item called Education Related Professional Organizations...so I did't get the chance to pick from a lot of organizations).
Purpose: This organization tries to improve learning and teaching by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. They are also the creator and home of the NETS (standards for technology proficiency and integration in education for students and teachers.
Cost and Benefits of Memberships:
LearnPort
I registered for LearnPort for the first time in one of the earlier "things" that talked about the NetTrekker. I looked in there for a while for more resources and lesson plans. There is a lot of material accessible there! This time, I explored the courses that were offered. It was really neat!! I had to renew my teaching certificate again this past summer, and I was reminded about the continuuing education requirement portion of my teaching certification. Since I am still finishing up my dissertation, I've never had a problem getting enough credits for renewing my certificate. But as I look into the future, I will need to start to accumulate credits or SB-CEUs. This was a great resource! And some of the courses looked like they would be great content review resources. I will definitely be using this in the future.Social Networking
I have both a Twitter and Facebook account. And to be honest, I've never used the Twitter account except for the assignments I had to do as a part of my 23 Things course (I think that's why I signed up). I also never really used my Facebook account. I know that there are people (lots of my friends) who absolutely LOVE Facebook and are on all the time. I just don't feel the need to be that connected. And, I don't really care (nothing personal) if someone just put cookies in the oven or if they just noticed that it's really cloudy. I just don't have enough time in my day to spend a lot of time on either of those sites. That being said, I do think that there might be a place for some type of class Facebook account. I don't know of any high school teachers that have one for their class, but I know several elementary school teachers who have pages for their students' parents to access and find out what's going on and to communicate with each other. I usually try to think that I'm pretty open to technology, but I'm just not sure that I'm ready to venture into that area yet.
I just finished watching the AdobeConnect presentation for this thing, and I would like to ammend my answers/opinion about Twitter. I do like the idea of subscribing to other "smart" people's Twitter feeds and then to be able to scroll through them occasionally and glean some good information. I just do NOT want to know when people have coffee, notice it's sunny, wash their car, and other mundane stuff.
MACUL
I joined the MACUL space and poked around in a few places. This has been something that I've thought about over the years, but I figured that most of the members were probably "super duper" tech people and not "regular" classroom teachers. But, as a part of the PBL training I took this summer, I think that I might be a part of a MACUL presentation or poster session or something this coming year. So, maybe this is a good way for me to start being involved in an organization such as this.Professional Organization
I chose to research International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (Unfortunately, there was no link attached to the resources list item called Education Related Professional Organizations...so I did't get the chance to pick from a lot of organizations).
Purpose: This organization tries to improve learning and teaching by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. They are also the creator and home of the NETS (standards for technology proficiency and integration in education for students and teachers.
Cost and Benefits of Memberships:
- $10/month
- Learning & Leading with Technology Magazine
- ISTE Learning Resources
- 30% ISTE Books discount
- 60% ISTE Webinars discount
- ISTE Conference and Exposition registration discount
- Unlimited access to all ISTE member communities and social networks including 20 Special Interest Groups
Thing #15
Productivity ToolsWord to .pdf
I use this function all the time. When I post documents and PowerPoint presentations on our class Moodle site, I post them in .pdf format. This has eliminated problems I had previously with students not being able to open the files because they were in a format their computer couldn't use.
Media Convert
I tried to open www.media-convert.com, but it wouldn't open. So, then I searched and found Media Converter. But it turns out that it just converts media files (my word processing document that I tried to upload was not a supported file type). So, I went to Zamzar instead. I uploaded a Word (docx) document, and the output formats I could choose from were the following: doc, mp3, odt, pcx, pdf, png, ps, txt. I don't even know what odt, pcx, and ps are as far as their file types. The Zamzar site was easy to use, and I can see myself using it in the future as I have students turn in more and more electronic documents that I can't always open. And I can convert (or have students convert) their files into particular formats to use different place. I also converted a Word document to an mp3 file. I'm not a huge fan of "screen readers," but they might be very helpful for some students. And who knows, maybe I might get used to it if I used them enough.
Google Calendar
I also like this function. All of our students have g-mail accounts (the educational ones through school), and so it would be very easy for me to have them create and set up a calendar. Then I could share a calendar with class due dates with them. I also noticed that you could embed the calendar. That would be a very nice function that I could use to embed the calendar either into our class Moodle site (I think Moodle has a calendar as well, but this would be nice since I could keep a variety of different calendars and then just have one of them "sent" to the Moodle site) or onto my "Face of the Classroom" site (a Weebly one or something).
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