Making the Argument

I did this same post in the D2L discussion posts, but in the grades it showed up as a blog so I thought to be safe I better post it in both places.


Baby-steps are the key!  Start with a small, well thought out plan that is easily controllable and work to bigger and better things.


I do feel that my school is getting to be more open with web 2.0 tools.  I know that our newly hired IT person has made a Facebook page for the school.  Although, it is blocked while at school—which I sometimes feel like that is not so bad.  I understand the point that blocking students does nothing for teaching them the right uses, however, I just think that there are other avenues that can do the same thing in the classroom that are more safe and manageable.  I hate being so negative, but shouldn’t the majority of this responsibility be the parents?  Why does everything seem to be pushed off on the educators?  There really should be parenting classes for the 21^st century child!


On that note our Google accounts have access to the same type of things and just seem to be more private and more convenient because they are all in one place.  There will always be students who try to abuse the system (like one of my co-workers has quickly discovered with students using GoogleDocs as a way to “text” back in forth in class).  This seems to me the same as passing notes back and forth just in a digital format.  Good classroom management is the key to avoid these types of things.  Kids will be kids and will always try to find ways around doing what they are supposed to be doing unless they are engaged  in what they are doing or have clear expectations and consequences. 


I love the idea of using blogs, class discussion forums, collaborative document/presentation/survey builders, web design in the classroom and quite frankly these are very easy to get the administrators on board with.  First of all, I have a plan (really that should always come first when wanting to use a tool).  When you have a purpose for the tool and standards you are accomplishing it makes it really easy to get their understanding.  Second of all, using ones that are “private” or more manageable make it easier for administration and technology staff to give the ok.  This is why Google for the school is such a great thing—we can control how private or public we want to make things.  I plan to start being very private just to see how things go and then as we find more and more uses we can start letting them be more public when appropriate or “safe”.   


I am a math teacher and this is a use that I am actually considering doing for next year.  I have already had the idea of doing my math journals as a blog post, but the following site gives a great way to incorporate communication and individual responsibility for discussions/blogs. 


http://apps.mrhiggins.net/how-we-blog-math


This teacher has one student in charge of summarizing the concept learned that day while incorporating other math tools.   They then are in charge of choosing who will be the next “scribe”.  The great thing about this is that it makes the student talk about what they learned.  The element I would like to add is having other students comment or ask questions—this way they can get a dialogue going.


I also like the idea Prof. Schroeder gave me about having students be responisble for explaining one of the homework problems to the rest of the class and then students can comment back and forth.  I would not do this with the whole assignment, but I do like the idea of picking one or two problems and having students responsible for those problems.  I also like the idea that this will motivate students to actually look at the discussion (it gives them help on a problem) and then if things are not clear they can comment back and forth.  This is a great way to get them talking about the process of solving the problem and communicating about the things that they are learning!  Great idea--thanks Prof. Schroeder! 

Twitter Revisited

I honestly still haven't thought of a meaningful use for twitter.  I just don’t get it and find that the whole thing is disorganized and full of useless blurbs of information.  Most times when there was something interesting I was directed to a website,  which made me think I could have done the same kind of search using Google.  I really don’t see how meaningful information can be shared in 140 words or less.  Or maybe it is because I talk too much and can’t fit in those restrictions.   Lastly, I found it very cumbersome trying to search for people to follow.   I really did try to give it a fair shot, but found most of the time I spent searching was a waste.  I even tried to “cheat” and checked out what other people were following and still didn’t find anything that I felt was useful.  I tried different key word searches, tried using the tag cloud, and even searched things from the interset category--still found nothing!  I would much rather use a blog or mini-blog to communicate.  I feel that blogs can be more organized and read using one of my favorite RSS feeds Google Reader. 

As for using Twitter in the classroom I thought of a way to use it--communicating with parents and students about upcoming events.  I could also have students tweet about summaries of concepts or vocabulary definitions, but once again I could do the same thing with the announcement page and mini-blog page on my classroom Google website.  I just like the idea of having every tool in one private and conventient place.

Personal Learning Network

I don’t think I really had a personal learning network before this class.  I mean I  searched the web for good resources, emailed people, and bookmarked things into my favorite’s folder, but that was about it.   I can honestly say that I never had read a blog, let alone create one.  I knew that there were Web2.0 tools out there, but would have never believed that there were so many great things out there that are easy to use, free, and great for emphasizing communication and collaboration.  I have discovered great ways to implement these things in a mathematics classroom and will continue to challenge myself to integrate more of the tools into my classes.   I do have to admit that I it makes me scared that once this class is over I will not have someone there pointing out all these cool tools available to me and encouraging me to try them out and talk about how I could apply them in the classroom setting.  Prof. Schroeder, would you like to be my PLN assistant (volunteer of course)?  Keeping connected and up-to-date on new technologies is almost a full-time job itself!

It is actually pretty crazy how much I have learned in these eight short weeks.  I am excited to use these great tools and resources to engage and motivate my students.  I would have to say that I have fallen in love with Google and all of its applications as you could tell from all my other blogs.  I found voice threads, flickr, and digital timelines to be very cool tools and hope to integrate those somehow.  I love the idea of having a classroom website with a blogging page.  I would also love to have a gadget on my site where I can communicate with parents about upcoming events in the classroom.   I will most definitely be replacing my paper math journals and transform that into a classroom blog page where students can respond to my prompts and respond to each other’s posts.  I will also (as part of my unit plan) have students making their own webpages about using math/algebra in the real world or  I also like the idea of having students make a tutorial website on a topic that they have learned in class as an alternative assessment.  I was initialing going to implement the plan next year, but once the students heard about my ideas they have asked that I let them do it this year.  

I love bookmarking with tags—I have been only using Delicious, but don’t know what I want to do in the future.  I really love Diigo because I really love all the extra tools that are free for educators and students, but I have built a network of people and resources in Delicious so I don’t want to lose that.  I know that I could use both, but I have to be realistic about things and know that I will not want to bounce back and forth.  (I do think there is a way to transfer over my stuff to Diigo, but I will have to further investigate that later).  I feel I am finally getting the hang of tagging and have found that connecting with others with the same interests and educational goals is easier than I thought.  I am not a social person by any means and usually stick to my small circle of coworkers and friends.  I never thought that I had the time (or need) for expanding that circle, but found that it is well worth the time spent making those connections.   

 

delicious—YUM!

I have actually talked about how much I love Diigo and its educator features that allow students to work in a collaborative community and allow them to tag, highlight, and add sticky notes on shared sites.  This can not only replace taking notes on notecards, but also provide a great way for students to talk about specific pieces of texts in a web site.  Students can add individual comments and/or comment on other people’s comments!  Wow!  I love the idea that students can do research as a group and share sites that they find that are useful, yet can do their research independently.  As long as students are responsible for bookmarking/tagging a site why not have them share what they are findin?  This really worked when Sommer and I had done our Wiki page on technology.  If I found a site that I liked it I tagged it and shared it with Sommer, this way when we finished our research we had a wonderful place to store and organize the information we found.  What I didn’t think of until recently is that students can even tag the sites with their group name as a way to even get more specific with their tagging. 

This could actually be a great tool for teachers in a small district like mine to connect with other math teachers that teach the same subject.  I am the only Algebra I teacher in the high school and it would be great to connect and share with another teacher in the same area.  I am not sure how to find these people or coordinate getting them signed up but just think of the possibilities of sharing and collaborating!

Connections, Connecting, Connected!

I actually didn’t realize the potential for connecting with others until we got this assignment.  I really thought of del.icio.us as just a bookmarking tool and organization tool for my own resources.  The most networking I did was connecting with people in my own circle that I knew and who had an account (basically just people from this class).  Sommer and I actually used sharing of tags as a way to conduct our research for the Wiki on technology.  (This is actually a great way to have students use this, but I will talk about that in the next post).  I never really thought of branching out and connecting with people with my same tags/interests.  I am really digging how I can search other people’s tags and sites that they have tagged (it even makes it easier when people have nice annotations because then I don’t even have to visit the site to see if it will work for me).  I have already added a “stranger” to my network because she has tagged numerous sites that not only include technology, but also mathematics.  Her ID is cee003519 I think she is most likely an elementary teacher but she has found some really great sites that can be used in the high school setting. 

Tag You’re It!

Well, I started just using tags that consisted of the Web2.0 tools we had discussed, investigated, or researched as I worked at home.  I then realized that I could start tagging things when I worked at school since I can log in at any computer.  The only downfall is that my computer at school is frozen so I cannot download the toolbar so I just use the sidebar option and that has worked out pretty well.  (I do plan to have my IT person install the toolbar for me eventually I just haven’t put in the order yet.)  I usually use at least two or three tags for each site depending on what it covers or offers.  I didn’t really use synonyms and most times descriptor tags showed up for me.  Once I started investigating other people’s tags I got ideas for tagging my sites.  I have now decided that when I research and tag sites for math lessons or activities I am going to add the high school tag.  This is because when I am searching other people’s tags it is a bummer that I don’t know what types of math lessons are available (elementary vs. middle school vs. high school).  I also really loved the annotations that people used.  I never really thought of doing that until I saw how they worked for other people.  I like how people just gave a quick summary or use for the site.  This can allow you to easily browse the sites and get to the ones that apply the best to what you are looking for.  Right now the sites that I am adding are fresh in my mind, but months or years from now it would be nice to have those summaries so I don’t have to go to the actual site to see why I tagged it.  I plan on going back and annotating my sites during spring break. 

I am now branching out my bookmarking and tagging for mathematics based sites and personal websites.  It really comes in handy when I come across something that I really like I know that I can tag it and I will never have to worry about forgetting where I found it.  I have been really consistent with my tagging that kind of goes with my obsessive compulsive personality.  My brain is just organized that way!  If I were teaching tags to students I would tell them to use tags as a way to identify the main purpose/ideas of the site.  I would almost go about it the same way I would have students organize their folders.  The tags that seem to be the most popular for me would be technology (not just because of this course), resource, and math.