Thinking back on all the Web 2.0 tools that I explored and investigated throughout the Web 2.0 course, podcasting really stood out. With podcasting students can create an oral booktalk which can be listened to on the internet or downloaded and listened to on an ipod etc.
I would really like to begin working with my students in podcasting. I'd like to have them create booktalks and podcast them.
This would address NETS-S
1. Creativity and Innovation
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
2. Communication and Collaboration
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
3. Research and Information Fluency
b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
5. Digital Citizenship
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
b. select and use applications effectively and productively.
This would help them learn to communicate clearly with others. This would be particularly good for communicating with their peers while engaging them in a fun and fascinating project. I'd like to incorporate their podcasts within our new library catalog if possible. Other wise I'll post them in a wiki or blog. I will also be having students create reviews to post within the library catalog (Destiny).
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Learning for the Future
The literacies that our students of today will need to be productive in their lives during the 21st Century are continually changing. I recall a colleague some 25 or more years ago who was agonizing over how/what to teach to prepare his students with skills for their post-graduation years. He wondered how we could teach students what they needed to know when everything was changing so rapidly. Now, as then, I think the answer is that we need to teach the students concepts, not specific skill sets. We need to teach problem solving, analysis etc. not just how to solve for x and y, not just what Shakespeare meant in Romeo and Juliet.
Clearly the most challenging thing for educators is to ensure that the students have the ability to continually learn new things and to continually change the way they interact with people, and technology. The successful individual is the one who is able to reinvent his ways of working and interacting on a continual basis. Thus educators of today must look at curriculum and content to see whether they promote the ability to learn and to shift paradigms so that today's students are tomorrow's successful individuals.
Another major challenge is for the educator to embrace these changes in his/her own life and teaching. From "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side" to perhaps exploring together. I do not know what the future holds, but I do know it will be different, challenging and some of it will be wonderful. Some however will be useless fillers of time. The secret is to learn to discern which is which.
Clearly the most challenging thing for educators is to ensure that the students have the ability to continually learn new things and to continually change the way they interact with people, and technology. The successful individual is the one who is able to reinvent his ways of working and interacting on a continual basis. Thus educators of today must look at curriculum and content to see whether they promote the ability to learn and to shift paradigms so that today's students are tomorrow's successful individuals.
Another major challenge is for the educator to embrace these changes in his/her own life and teaching. From "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side" to perhaps exploring together. I do not know what the future holds, but I do know it will be different, challenging and some of it will be wonderful. Some however will be useless fillers of time. The secret is to learn to discern which is which.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Do you hear what I hear?
Podcasts can be fun to play with, and fun to listen to. The challenge that I always have in creating a podcast is to have something worth saying to a larger audience. Those who know me well know that I am rarely at a loss for words, but that does not necessarily mean that I should be listened to. Creating podcasts of book talks seems to be a good use of podcasting for the busy librarian. Nancy Keane has created many many wonderful talks at her "Booktalks Quick and Simple" site http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/ . I've added one of my own here.
Knights of the Kitchen Table You'll also find that clicking the Title of this posting brings you to the same podcast which is stored on podbean.
Having booktalks, whether Keane's or my own, as podcasts allows me to share more booktalks with my students. It is difficult to prepare 10 booktalks for a class, and then need a totally different group for the next class. Podcasting also saves my voice and can be a great alternative lesson plan for days when my voice is going, going, gone!
Using these podcasts can then develop into having 4th and 5th grade students create booktalks and podcast them as well. This would fall under NETS-S 2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance,
to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments
and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
Knights of the Kitchen Table You'll also find that clicking the Title of this posting brings you to the same podcast which is stored on podbean.
Having booktalks, whether Keane's or my own, as podcasts allows me to share more booktalks with my students. It is difficult to prepare 10 booktalks for a class, and then need a totally different group for the next class. Podcasting also saves my voice and can be a great alternative lesson plan for days when my voice is going, going, gone!
Using these podcasts can then develop into having 4th and 5th grade students create booktalks and podcast them as well. This would fall under NETS-S 2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance,
to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments
and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Split Rock Lighthouse
I've created my Flickr account and added some of my favorite pictures from our summer 2008 vacation. This is Split Rock Lighthouse on the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. I also joined a group on Flickr on Split Rock Lighthouse and added 2 of my pictures to the group. This is my first experience with Flickr even though I think it may be one of the best known sites. I've visited Picasa webshare and a few others (wherever my sister happens to be landing her pictures at the moment).
I think using a photo-sharing site for a class such as digital photography would be a great tool. Students could then view and critique each others work as convenient. I certainly might use it in my teaching role as a 4-H photography leader and judge.
In the classroom (library) I think I would use it to have students comment on a picture from a group of pictures. I would ask them to reflect upon what they noted in the photo, the details, how it made them feel, and ultimately have them write a short essay or a short story involving the picture. This would meet NETS_S 2. Communication and collaboration.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Social Bookmarking
I am now a convert to Delicious. I'm using it at home and at school. Now I need to get many more of my bookmarks onto Delicious and tagged. Unfortunately, that will take time---and thus will need to wait until summer or retirement.
I could create a social bookmarking site for my students to access when I want them to use certain sites for an assignment. Currently I have these on my school website, http://www.cf.k12.wi.us/library/librarylinks.htm but I can no longer upload the changes to the page myself. Thus Delicious would allow me to update the bookmarks much more quickly. I'll be using the United States links from the library page with my 5th grade class as they complete a research project on a state. This would meet the NETS-S
3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
I could create a social bookmarking site for my students to access when I want them to use certain sites for an assignment. Currently I have these on my school website, http://www.cf.k12.wi.us/library/librarylinks.htm but I can no longer upload the changes to the page myself. Thus Delicious would allow me to update the bookmarks much more quickly. I'll be using the United States links from the library page with my 5th grade class as they complete a research project on a state. This would meet the NETS-S
3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
I do like using an RSS feed to keep up on some blogs. There were a few that I liked to check but found that I was not good about visiting regularly. Now I can just use RSS to keep up on all of them.
I'm using Google Reader. I tried Bloglines and did not like it. I had to visit the website and login each time, so I didn't feel like I had gained much. With the Google Reader I can click over to it from my iGoogle homepage. I can view it from any internet connection, and it's easy to remember the one login and password. I have found that one of my feeds is providing too many articles a day and too few are useful, so it will be deleted. I'm sure I can find other, better stuff. I need to start using the folder options on Google Reader as well since there are professional things as well as personal things that I'd like to follow.
If I were to use RSS with students, I think it would be to show them how to set up a feed to help with information for research projects. Many of our students already have a gmail account and use iGoogle, so the Google Reader would work well for them. I'd like to work with some of our high school students to set up RSS reads for their personal interests such as sports, teams, trucks, tractors etc. This would fall under the NETS-S 5-d, Digital Citizenship, demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
I'm using Google Reader. I tried Bloglines and did not like it. I had to visit the website and login each time, so I didn't feel like I had gained much. With the Google Reader I can click over to it from my iGoogle homepage. I can view it from any internet connection, and it's easy to remember the one login and password. I have found that one of my feeds is providing too many articles a day and too few are useful, so it will be deleted. I'm sure I can find other, better stuff. I need to start using the folder options on Google Reader as well since there are professional things as well as personal things that I'd like to follow.
If I were to use RSS with students, I think it would be to show them how to set up a feed to help with information for research projects. Many of our students already have a gmail account and use iGoogle, so the Google Reader would work well for them. I'd like to work with some of our high school students to set up RSS reads for their personal interests such as sports, teams, trucks, tractors etc. This would fall under the NETS-S 5-d, Digital Citizenship, demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wiki
I've created my first Wiki, a scary proposition. It's located at: http://grandma-library.pbwiki.com/ Right now it has a page for Photography help. I enjoy photography and am a 4-H adult volunteer leader in the Photography project. I have occasional photography project meetings with youth. I also am a registered photography judge for Wisconsin county fairs. I usually judge at 3-5 different fairs each year, both in junior (4-H) and open classes.
So, at the moment this wiki has an education component that does not necessarily pertain to my role in a school district, but is educational none-the-less. I hope that this page is also useful to students who are in our district's digital photography class, and that perhaps they may contribute to it as well.
So, at the moment this wiki has an education component that does not necessarily pertain to my role in a school district, but is educational none-the-less. I hope that this page is also useful to students who are in our district's digital photography class, and that perhaps they may contribute to it as well.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Blog on
I've followed a variety of personal and professional blogs for a few years. There are other blogs I've visited and never gone back. I think that at this point I'm ready to create a professional blog for my students to access. Hopefully by the end of this course I'll have come up with some great ideas for blogging with some of my students. One of the issues is that I work in a class setting with elementary students. So far most of my ideas would work better with middle to high school students.
The greatest challenge I see in using blogs with students is the fear that school boards and administrators have of students writing and publishing on the web. However this can be addressed by having the blog set to be private and previewing all posts. Some principals do not trust their teachers to be appropriate in the reviews, thus blocking the use of blogs and other web 2.0 tools.
I'd like to start a blog of book reviews, book talks, and book trailers to entice students to read some new titles. I'd like to have students post comments. Eventually I would like to have students post their reviews etc. This would address NETS_S Standard 2, Communication and Collaboration. Working with blogs would also address Standard 5, Digital Citizenship.
The greatest challenge I see in using blogs with students is the fear that school boards and administrators have of students writing and publishing on the web. However this can be addressed by having the blog set to be private and previewing all posts. Some principals do not trust their teachers to be appropriate in the reviews, thus blocking the use of blogs and other web 2.0 tools.
I'd like to start a blog of book reviews, book talks, and book trailers to entice students to read some new titles. I'd like to have students post comments. Eventually I would like to have students post their reviews etc. This would address NETS_S Standard 2, Communication and Collaboration. Working with blogs would also address Standard 5, Digital Citizenship.
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