Cool Tools

I actually looked at all of the cool tools so I will just write about the three that I liked the best (or that have the most potential for use in my own classroom).  These tools would be the online storytelling tool, image and video sharing, and polling and quizzing.  I feel compelled to say that my favorite tool would still be GoogleSites, but I do understand that I may be baised since that is the one that I had picked. 

The first tool that I really liked was the online storytelling tools.  This tool seems to be very similar to the Digital PhotoStory that I already have “tinkered” with.  I had created an activity for my Geometry classes (which I don’t teach anymore) in which students find photos of random things and describe the geometrical relationships that they see going on in the pictures.  For example, a picture of an orange cut in half could be used and students could talk about all the angle relationships that they see in the image (ie vertical angles, acute angles, supplementary, etc.).  This project would be at the end of the year so that students are allowed to synthesize and analyze all the things that they learned throughout the year.  How cool is that!?!

The second tool that I will actually be investigating this year (hoping to implement in the fall) is the video sharing tools.  I am hoping to get access to GoogleVideos (once again I think I may be Google’s number one fan), but do plan on using YouTube until I can get access.  I really love YouTube for obtaining tutorial videos (they even have fun videos that put mathematical concepts into song or real world contexts).  Until just recently, however, YouTube was blocked at our school.  We now have partial access where teachers can access it, but students cannot.  This does limit the uses on the student side, but I still think that educator uses are still great.  Currently I am recording my lessons and I would love to start downloading these lessons on YouTube so that my students can watch my lessons as a review or if they were absent.  (I even have students who have other teachers who have requested to get access to these videos because they like how I break things down).   Eventually, I would like to just embed those videos in my GoogleSite so that students can find them easily and access them from anywhere.

The last tool that I really liked was the polling tool.  I actually plan an using this next year in my Algebra IA class.  During my data collection and displays unit I have my students create a survey, collect the data, organize the data, and display the data so that they actually go through the entire process with relevant information that means something to them.  Normally what I have done is I have the kids go around an ask other students their opinions.  What usually ends up happening is that we get very biased sampling because most freshmen are not brave enough to ask people outside their circle of friends or current grade.  Something like Survey Monkey (or GoogleSurvey—I know I am obsessed) would give students the opportunity to conduct the survey in a more convenient and comfortable way.  This way they can get a better data set to work with which in turn will help with the rest of the process.

I do want to mention that GoogleEarth (once again Google Apps has stolen my heart) is actually a tool that I am really interested in and am somewhat bummed that it wasn’t talked about.  I will have to investigate this tool on my own because I believe that it’s applications for the math classroom is vast and varied.  I already have a couple lessons that I would like to try out so I will be attempting those on my own and hope to get them set so I can integrate them next year into my curriculum.

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

Once again I have to be perfectly honest, I really don’t see myself really using Twitter personally or professionally.  Educationally speaking, I will most likely use my own class website and create a mini-blog on there, however, that being said I do believe that if I could find a good idea I think Twitter would be a great way to have students connect with people on a global scale.  I have spent the last hour searching in Twitter and have yet to find someone to follow (other than my good friend Sommer who is also in this class).  I searched math, education, technology, family and nothing really seemed interesting or worthwhile to me.  I think that if I could find the right people to follow I could possibly get into tweeting (especially for collaborating or sharing ideas) just finding those people seems like the hard part.  I thought about following a celebrity, but how can you really be sure that the tweet is actually from them?

I do think that I could see myself using Twitter over Facebook.  I was just talking with my students on Thursday (because they were yelling at me for not having a Facebook account when they know that I am so into technology) about not doing the Facebook thing because it would be one more thing that I would stress about doing.  I would always feel guilty about not updating or checking it or commenting.  Maybe once my life slows down (and knowing me it never will) I will have time to do something like Facebook.  Twitter seems to me more manageable and less intimidating—all my posts have to be small and that I could handle.  I still am not sure how I feel about putting things out there for the world to see—it just seems weird to me to write to this empty void.  

I really think that micro-blogging could be great with my math journaling that I usually do with my students.  I would also love to start having my students do math discussions which would be a great micro-blog application.  Once again, I would use my GoogleSites because of the convenience and privacy thing. 

David Warlick's "Technology Transformed Learining Environments"

One use of technology that works well in my classroom setting (high school math) is the use of Moodle.  I currently only have it up and going for one of my five subjects I teach because the classes are somewhat cumbersome to design and manage using this program (this is why I am researching alternative (more user friendly) methods to Moodle.  I love that I am able to have resources available to students as they may need them.  I have tutorials, online assessments that give them immediate feedback, practice problems, and enrichment problems available for all the students in the class.   For example, I SmartRecord my lessons and upload them to Moodle.  This allows students to play the lesson if they were absent, play the lesson over and over again without anyone knowing how many times they had to watch it to understand the concept, or play the lesson as a way to study for a quiz or test.  I also have enrichment problems that I post in which students can elect to work through.  They try solving them explaining their thoughts and then I respond with “great thinking”, “you’re on the right track, or I give them clues or advice.  I would love to add a discussion piece in which students can respond to given topics like I would have them do in their math journals and then also respond to each other’s comments.

Alan November's "Four things every student should learn...but not every school is teaching."

I agree, for the most part, with Alan November’s article Four things every student should learn…but not every school is teaching.   The thing that scares me the most is that I feel like at some point there is going to be a breaking point for me as an educator.  More and more parenting obligations are being pushed on educators along with the pressures of meeting state standards, expectations for no child left behind, and funding cuts.  (Do I dare mention the slap in the face we educators are getting from the legislation and its supporters.  It looks to me that empathy is something that our very governor is very much lacking.)  I think empathy in general is something that many people are lacking.  Many of my students are very “me” centered and have very little concern for the person sitting next to them let alone someone across the globe.  I have always been an empathic person and try to hit on that every day in my classroom.  I try to make students understand that respecting someone else’s point of view does not mean they have to agree with them—it just means you have to see where they are coming from and understand their point of view.  Sometimes I like to say we can agree to disagree, but we need to learn how to move on and learn how to work together despite our differences.  This is especially hard when you are teaching in a very rural and homogeneous district, where the culture of the community is very closed minded.   However, this will never stop me from implementing it in my classroom! 

November’s second point, in my opinion, is probably one of the most important (however I must admit this is something that parents should be doing not just leaving it to educators).  I believe that when we address bullying in the school we most definitely need to address cyber bullying.   I completely agree that blocking assess does nothing when it comes to teaching them how to responsibly use the tools.  How can we model the right uses of these tools if we are not allowed access at school?  This ties in with his third point about the permanence of information online and even more importantly the consequences of having personal information out there for the world to see. I have seen many students learn the hard way that when they are “journaling” their daily lives online that things eventually come back and bite them in the butt.    Take that and add the whole reappearing website trick and that could hopefully open a few eyes. 

November’s last point was actually something that many of our high school teachers are battling every day.  I think the topic about the order of appearance in a google search alone is something that every student should be aware of.  This statement sure makes me think about the research that I have done in the past.  I can honestly say that I myself don’t know how to determine whether a site is trust worthy (unless I am familiar with the organization or author from other sources).  It almost seems to me that there should be a class on the ethics of online tools that should be a graduation requirement.  I suppose, however, if every teacher takes one thing and addresses each year this could at least make some sort of an impact on students.  Sometimes I find myself struggling with ways to incorportate web 2.0 tools into mathematics let alone these technology lessons.  However, I have a substanial role in implementing PBIS (positive behavior intervention system) into our school district and cybe bullying and sexting could most definitely fit into our behavior matrix, school expectations, and goals. 

Diigo Versus Delicious: The battle is on.

Diigo and del.icio.us are both bookmarking tools that help you easily organize and save different websites by using a tagging system.  They also let you retrieve these bookmarked sites no matter which computer you are on, which works great for people like me that use multiple different computers a day.  The way the tools organize, tag, and share seem to be about the same with both tools.  One big difference that I have found, however, is that Diigo seems to have more cools tools besides just tagging.  I love that Diigo has a highlighter, sticky note, and shape maker option and what makes it even cooler is that all the things you do actually stay on the site.  Diigo also lets you archive a site so that if you really liked it you could save it just as it is and you know it will always be there.  I actually created an account with Diigo and applied for the free educators upgrade and received it by the next day.  I haven’t fully investigated all its uses, but I think it would be a really great tool for students who are doing research on the web.  Not only can they take their notes on the web page, but it can also be shared with you so you can actually monitor their progress and give them tips and ideas.  As for del.icio.us I really liked it when I was using it, but now that I have seen all the Diigo can do I will most likely use Diigo full-time (outside of this class) I am amazed at what types of things are out there that I had no idea even existed. 

 I really wish that I was able to download Diigo to my school computer so that I could start tagging, organizing, and sharing my on-line resources TODAY.  At my school our computers are frozen so anytime I download something it disappears the when I shut down.  There have been several times that I have been thinking of an activity and then I have to spend my prep period searching for the darn site that I got the activity or idea from.  I had this tool at school I could tag it (for example  Algebra II GraphingQuadratics worksheet generator) and then I could start compiling my resources and save myself a large amount of time.  This tool would have been great to have last year because I found a really cool math website and now I can’t remember what it was and haven’t been back to in since.  I think I will be getting my IT guy down to my room ASAP so that he can download it for me. 

I really think that I am going to have my Honors Algebra II class do a research project about a famous mathematician of their choice and Diigo would be perfect for them to do this.  I was also thinking of having my Algebra I students doing research on the use of mathematics in the real world.  They could bookmark their sites, tag them, and then take notes using just one tool.  How cool is that?  Diigo is like the modern day notecard method of doing research.

GoogleDocs—Love at first sight

What can I say—I LOVE GOOGLEDOCS!!!  I wish I could go to the top of the mountain (the nearest being Cascade) and tell everyone that I now have a new technology love, sorry Smart Notebook.  Maybe it is because it is February and everywhere I look I see hearts and flowers, but I am hopelessy smitten with GoogleDocs.  I am actually already starting to think of how I can get my Algebra II students doing a project.  It is absolutely perfect because we just converted to using google for our email for our entire district and is available to EVERYONE.  There are so many cool features that I don’t even know where to start.  I love that it is accessible to every student (and tied to their email account which they use every day).  I love that students can work on it together either at the same time (in real time) or when it is convenient to them.  I love that students don’t have to worry about compatibility issues.  I love that students don’t have to worry about relying on the other group member being present (as long as it is properly shared) to work on it.  I love that it has programs that students are already familiar with using (word, excel, powerpoint) but in a REALLY user friendly version.  I love that it is storing this stuff outside of our network which frees up space on our network.  I love that with igoogle it is like facebook in which everything is in one spot and easily accessible.  I love that it has info on when things were worked on last.  I love that there are “live” presentations and surveys.  I can’t believe I had access to all of this this whole time and had no idea it was there.  It is like putting on your winter coat for the first time in the season and finding a ten dollar bill that was there from last year!  For this alone I am thankful that I have taken this class and think that my money was well spent. 

Wikis?

I am going to be perfectly honest--I really don’t see myself using wikis in the future.  Maybe I just don’t get them yet or haven’t fully realized their potential, but I am just not seeing their importance when there are so many other more convenient, safe, and user friendly tools out there.  I joined a wiki when I was taking a class through the John Muir Academy and we used it to post our info, ideas, projects, and so forth so I sometimes go back to it when I want to access the resources, but that is about it.  I do, however, like the idea of using a wiki as a place for departmental “meetings”.  This would really alleviate the pain of going to meetings at a set time, but yet provide the opportunity to input ideas, concerns, and resources.  (Once again, I do feel the need to mention that this same stuff can be done using GoogleDocs and is probably the route I would go.)

Blog Management

Ok, I admit I am more faithful at reading the blogs of the people that I have a more personal connection with.  At first, it was just Prof. Schroeder because she is the “boss” and my two colleagues/friends Geri and Sommer. Now that I have worked some with Emily I am now interested in her thoughts (which are as equally as great as my original three).  So I think in a classroom setting the same types of things would happen—students would be most interested their friends’ thoughts and more inclined to comment to them.  So I am thinking that the best set-up would be a requirement to comment on someone you haven’t already commented on before.  I also think that for the sake of convenience I would just have one blog spot that the whole class would go to.  Even with my google reader organizing my RSS feeds for me and giving me a single spot for the various blog sites of classmates it is still a pain reading one blog at a time and then commenting on each one individually.  I like the idea of having a student each week start a blog and then the others would be required to comment to the blog (or the comment of someone else).  The only problem I see having (which happens with our wiki comments) is that if you are commenting towards the end it is very hard to come up with stuff that hasn’t already been said.  I would have to say that I like blogs much better than the discussion board on D2L because I can see everyone’s comments on one page rather than having to click on each separate comment in a different window.  Additionally, as weird as it sounds I am a visual person so it really helps to see the picture of the person commenting so I can make a more personal connection with them.  

Blogs versus Wikis

Like with every battle each opponent has its own strengths and weaknesses.  I think blogs are much safer than wikis.  I know that when I save a post that it will still be there waiting for me the next time I go back to my site even after someone else has commented.  I also think blogs are much more attractive than wikis.  I love that you can change the settings and themes to match your personality.  Blogs are more of a one-sided tool (for those of us control freaks this isn’t so bad).  Blogs unfortunately are not really set up to work collaboratively on something or to easily communicate back in forth.  Wikis, on the other hand, provide a single space where people can provide input and comment back in forth fairly easily.  (I hate the security process of commenting on a blog).  It is also more convenient to read everyone’s thoughts in one place rather than having to read each individual blog post at a time.  Wikis also have spots to organize other tools/sites which is a great convenience.  Unfortunately, this comes at the hefty price that your thoughts and hard work is NOT safe--a price that I am not willing to pay.  It must be the control freak in me!