CEdO 535 - Week 5

This week I learned about Yacapaca! Yacapaca is a Web 2.0 tool that can assist you with making your classes paperless. You can create quizzes, tests, and online assignments which are automatically scored for you. After they are scored, you can use the data from the scoring to drive your instruction for your next lessons.

I would love to use this with my students! I constantly feel buried by the amount of paper I collect and score. Yacapaca could help me change that, while encouraging my students to keep learning from technology. I am so excited to try it!

Week 4 - CEdO 535

We used two things this week that I think would be very beneficial to me in my career. First, I was very surprised to learn that social bookmarking is something I would use with my students. I've had my own diigo account for a long time, but I was always of the opinion that that was for older students, not my third graders. When we were talking in class last week about having a diigo group for my class, where I could bookmark all the sites they could easily go to, it was like a lightbulb went on, and I was wondering, "why didn't I think of that?".

The second thing I can't wait to get started with is a wiki. Instead of starting one for my class, I would like to start one for the staff at my school. I was telling my principal about this the other day, and she was all for it! My plan is to finalize everything with her tomorrow so I can do the staff wiki for my project this week. I can't wait to get started!

CEdO 535 - Week 3

I have learned SO MUCH this week that I will use with my class. First, I loved the RSS reader assignment. That feature is going to save me so much time that I used to spend going from website to website to check things. I linked the Iditarod news to it, because I want my class to follow that for a project this year, so now my students can see daily updates from the Iditarod that come right to us!

Second, I really like the photo sharing sites. I have to admit, I've been reluctant to upload my photos to an online storage site because I never thought it was really safe, and I didn't want any Joe off the street to have my personal pictures. But now that I've learned more about it, and the fact that photosharing doesn't mean all your pictures are fair game to anyone, I really like it. I started by uploading pictures I've taken of scenery and animals and put them on a site I plan to use with my students. That way, my students have a site geared to them that has pictures they can use for their technology projects in class.

CEdO 535 - Week 2

There are two things we did this week that I can use in my job, and they are photo sharing sites, and wikis. The photo sharing sites I would use with my students when they are doing projects. They tend to Google a subject, and then attempt to copy and paste each and every photo they find to use in their projects. My job then is to teach them about copyright laws and creative commons. I would encourage my students to use the Flickr Creative Commons site to find pictures they want for their projects.

The other topic we covered this week that I can use at work is wikis. In my case, I would like to use the wiki for staff members, not students. It would be a great way to collaborate with colleagues, without e-mailing back and forth all the time. Everyone invited could see and edit the pages, which would make a great tool we could all learn from!

Facilitating Collaboration Using Web 2.0 Tools

Wow! I really needed that couple weeks of holiday break! Now that I'm rested and refreshed, time to get back to work. I'm really enjoying reading Richardson's book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms". As I've been reading, I keep coming across things that I can use right away, as well as sections I want to give my principal to read about how to use these tools in the classroom.

The first tool I want to use in my classroom is e-pals. I talked to Mary during the last class in this cohort and she gave me a lot of information about e-pals from her personal experience. I've always done pen pals with my third graders, and I really think they're ready to start e-pals, so they can collaborate and learn from other students across the globe. The part I didn't realize until this week is that they can use e-pals for blogging! Since I mentioned e-pals to my principal, our tech person has set up a school account, so I think I could be well on my way to doing blogs with my students. I REALLY liked the idea mentioned in Chapter 2 of Richardson's book about students using blogs as an online filing cabinet from kindergarten through twelfth grade. They would have a complete collection of their work when they graduate! How awesome! This idea I'm going to mention to my principal right away tomorrow.

This book has opened up a whole new realm of ideas for me. Before I always thought of blogs and wikis as something for much older students. After doing this week's readings, I realize there is so much I can do with my third graders, and I can't wait to get started!