I really enjoyed the web 2.0 tool that Lori and I chose for this project.Writing is an essential skill that so many students fail to master.Working in higher education I see first hand how many students graduate high school without proper writing skills.Though I was not physically in the classroom to watch the implantation of the RILS lesson, we incorporated my son into the project as the “mystery blogger.”I enjoyed reading the students posts and hearing feedback from Lori how the students were taking to blogging.For me, my work was behind the scenes. I was tech support so to speak.I set up the classroom website and added the link to kidblog.I created a classroom blog and created accounts for each of the students.The one thing that I learned from this experience was that my directions to Lori on how to access the blog and each individual blog page could have been much more detailed. However, from the success of the blog lesson I have a feeling that the students did not seem to get hung up on that minor hiccup.
I really hope that this tool is able to help Lori increase the writing skills of her students and that they are able to find their voice through blogging.
Now that our RILS assignment is complete and we shared our lessons on Educator Studio. Below you will find links to my classmates lessons. I hope you enjoy their lessons as much as I did.
Please follow this link to Cyndee's lesson on ES. Cyndee's RILS project focused on Wordle. She really showed how this tool can be used in a collaborative way.
The second RILS lesson that I commented on was completed by Cynthia and Amanda. Take a look at their lesson and my comment here.
Blogging can be an incredibly powerful tool used to encourage learners to write. Writing their own blog posts can open up a whole new world for your students. Through the sharing of stories with one another, students learn how connected we really are. This blog lesson creates an environment were students can learn from each other, challenge each other, question each other and receive feedback on their stories.
Target Audience:
Our target audience will be a class of 21 4th grade students.
Materials:
We will need access to:
Computers
Internet
Teacher created classroom website
Blogging Platform
Objectives: At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to:
Investigate a topic of their choice (books, Web 2.0 applications, sports, video game, etc.)
Compose a blog post describing their chosen topic
Design a grading rubric for blog posts
Evaluate and score fellow classmates blogposts
Procedure:
Prior to students beginning the blogging lesson an account on kidblog.com was created for classroom blogging. Instructor added each student and created a unique password for each user. The direct link to the kidblog classroom login page wascopied and added to the classroom webpage hosted by teacherweb.com.
Students will be asked to brainstorming ideas of interest and decide on one topic.
Students will present their topic to the teacher for approval.
Upon teacher approval students will be provided directions on how to access to their blog pages.
Students will be given access to kidblog.com through the classroom website created on teacherweb.com
Students will login to kidblog.com and locate his/her pre-created blog page.
Student will then create their first blog post.
After students have posted the teacher will be notified that there is a new blog post to review and approve.
Students will be provided directions and examples on how to create a rubric which will be used to evaluate fellow classmates blogs.
Students will create a rubric.
Students will be randomly assigned to read fellow classmates blogs.
Students will comment to assigned blogs.
Students will evaluate assigned blogs with student created rubric.
Web 2.0 Tool:
A classroom website was created on teacherweb.com. Teacherweb allows teachers to quickly create classroom websites to share information with parents and students. The teacher website provides pertinent information about the classroom along with multiple student links. One of the links will redirect students to kidblog.com a site for designed especially for elementary classroom blogs. Kidblog is a site created by teachers that is safe and secure, allowing teachers to monitor and control all classroom blogs.
Social Learning/Collaboration:
Learners will be asked to share ideas for blogging and help each other come up with topics that are interesting to them and their reader audience. Students will be required to post comments on fellow classmates blogs and engage in a discussion (via the web). Students will also be assigned specific topics to blog and comment on. Kidblogs enables the instructor and students to engage in discussion in a fun and interactive way. By allowing student to write blog posts and replies to the blogs, there will be sharing of ideas and feedback from peers.
Making Connections:
Previous knowledge varies greatly among our target audience. The one thing they all have in common is text messaging. From mini messages to much bigger messages, blogging is an extension of that previous knowledge. Interacting with peers is extremely important to our audience. The fact that blogging allows for an exchange of thoughts and opinions makes blogging inherently relevant. As students blog, and comment on blogs they will be sharing with their classroom community as well as a guest blogger from another state to demonstrate the endless possibilities of a broader blogging audience.
Create/Produce: Students will create a personal blog post, compose comments, produce a rubric.
Assessment:
10 points for creation of initial blog post by deadline.
10 points for comments to assigned classmates’ blogs.
10 points for collaboration on student created rubric.
10 points for grading assigned classmates’ blogs using student created rubric.
10 points for using appropriate and respectful language.
Student created rubric:
Reflection:
a. Students will evaluate their own blog posting and reflect on what they did well and what they would do better next time. Students will also evaluate and give constructive feedback to their classmates through the use of a student created rubric. After the students have completed the blogging assignment the teacher will engage the students in a discussion about their blogging experience and what they each learned from the assignment and the comments from their fellow classmates.
b. During the open discussion with students the teacher will ask students about their experience and likes/dislikes with blogging. Through monitoring of student work the educator will take notes on the ease of access to the blogging platform and the ease of directions. As a final reflection the educator will blog about the overall experience and any difficulties that were observed. The instructor will look back at the process of this scenario and evaluate what went well, what could be improved if the lesson were repeated, and think about what new components they might add to this scenario next time.
As I stated in PE4-Teacherweb, I had to find a work around for Lori to be able to blog with her students. She really wanted to have a blog page for each of her students. After some research, I came across kidblog.org. Kidblog.org was created by educators, which appealed to me since student safety was important to me.
Kidblog is extremely user friendly and the steps were very easy in order to set up an account and classroom. I added all 22 students and provided each with a password. I set the account settings so that only classmates can read the blogs, again a nice feature in keeping students safe. A guest account can be set-up so parents can be given a generic log in and password to be able to read student blog entries.
One element of kidblog that I find lacking is that there are only a few themes to choose from. However, some real pluses of the site is the features that it offers when blogging. Students can add pictures, movies, and audio. I can’t wait to see what the students produce.
I am working together with Lori Hobbie to complete the RILS project. In a previous month we worked together on creating a class website. The site we choose worked for the concept but was clunky and limited. Lori really wanted to have a website that was easy to use and suited all of her needs. Lori decided on teacherweb.com to use for her new website.
Lori created an account and choose the template for the website. Then I went in and began transferring over the information from the old site to the new site. Teacherweb was a bit confusing in the beginning but once I figured it out it was not difficult at all. There are many features for teachers and so many different types of pages to choose from.
One feature that Lori was looking to incorporate into her classroom was blogs for the students. When I was building the website with teacherweb I was not able to create a blog page for each student as you are limited to seven blog pages. As an alternative I created a link on Lori’s class website and created an account on kidblog.org.
I am bummed! I tried the green screen effect...and I failed. I hate admitting that. I just did not have the right green background. It would have been awesome too.
I took my son's green comforter off his bed and hung it in my living room. Trouble with it was- it was way to dark and I did not have enough lighting. My husband and son had this fantastic Harry Potter spoof all scripted out and alas I could not use any of the footage. Of course now I want to buy a real green screen because I hate when I am not able to complete something. I just might have to invest in the real deal and have them reenact their skit so I can get it just right.
I really feel like I learned a lot from the tutorials and I wish I would have had them in month one when we had to create our intro video. But better late than never! Of course I think I am addicted to Lynda.com and want to watch every tutorial they offer.
Oh I am having so much fun with iMovie!! I feel like I need to go back and watch the 3 + hours of tutorials all over again and take better notes. Like I said in my first iMovie post I am working my way up to the green screen. For this post I decided to play around with the photos to a beat. This was so cool and so simple. What a quick way to make a photo slide show. Add a little music, add a couple (or many like I did) beats, a few pictures, and you have a nice slideshow. I can't wait to create more of these cute, quick projects.
Please follow this link to view my comments on Kristen's blog. She created a Voki and shared it via a screencast on her blog. Voki is so much fun and I recommend you checking it out if you have never seen one.
A constant problem that my instructional design team has is receiving or sending multiple large files back and forth with developing faculty. Our mail account will only allow a certain file size and then it fails. Sometimes we are able to find available server space to add documents and then send them to the faculty but they don’t have the same opportunity. An alternative is one file per email, which ends up being eight to ten emails. This can quickly junk up your inbox.
One really awesome tool that I uncovered while searching through all of the Web 2.0 tools available was boxify.me. boxify.me allows users to upload one or multiple files and provides you a link to send to others. So simple and easy to use. You upload the file(s) you want to share then out pops the url to send.
Another cool feature of boxify.me is that you can rename the “box” (url) before you send it. There is no registering or account set-up needed. Which is even better when you ask me. I have so many accounts I can never remember my login information from one tool to the next. The url is private and those individuals that you share the link with can download and upload items to this “box”.
You have the ability to continue adding to this box as much as needed. One feature that I did not see though was the ability to remove files in the box. Which means you have to be careful and make sure that you upload the correct files. Another thing to consider is naming conventions of files if you are working with versions of files.
Since month one of the EMDT program, I have been working in iMovie. I am no expert by far but thought I was doing pretty well muddling my way through the software. After watching the tutorials on Lynda.com, half way through I realized I am nothing but a minnow in a pond full of giant bass. Feedback from my previous videos suggested fixing my audio, and watching my transitions so I don’t cut myself off. I feel like this month is just full of ah-ha moments. A GREEN SCREEN??? Are you serious? I can’t wait to play with that option but for now I felt it best if I start small and work my way up to the Academy Award for Special Effects. Especially since I have yet to work out the details of my acceptance speech.
Instead I tackled a short film with footage from my stepson’s basketball game. The footage was shot from my husband’s phone since I came up with the brilliant idea to make a movie about the game after we left the house and the video camera at the house.
The thing I love about iMovie is that it is so easy. With a few clicks, some drag and drops and you have a movie. Could it get any easier than that? Though I don’t like the video footage that was not iMovie’s fault that is what you get when you shoot with a cell phone. What I do know is that my son thinks it is “ OMG, that is SOOOO cool!” So no matter what the end result is- he feels like a movie star and I feel like the coolest mom in the world.
As an instructional designer much of the daily activities includes collaborating with faculty to develop courses. Emails, phone calls, and online meetings are exchanged almost daily. Contracted faculty provides content and I structure the content in a way that best serves the needs of the learners. This is a back and forth process that takes a total of 16 weeks to complete. My normal work hours are 8am to 5pm, but the faculty that I collaborate with work on course development in between teaching classes on campus or online, and possibly an outside fulltime job if he/she is an adjunct. With that being said being able to work on documents simultaneously makes the world of difference. Being able to collaborate real time or with track changes makes my job easier. Since I work with a team of designers we are always trying to come up with tools that make our jobs more efficient. We have tried Sharepoint, but not everyone we work with has it. We have tried Google docs, which has worked well in the past, but I wanted to try a new tool. Thus, I discovered Think Free Online, an online office/workspace environment.
Think Free Online allows you to upload your documents so you can access them rom anywhere at anytime. You can create a workspace where you invite others to collaborate on projects with you. One of the elements that drew me in was the ability to be mobile- On Your Phone!
I quickly created a login, a very simple process. Enter my email and a password and viola you have an account.
Once I set up my online office I uploaded two documents, again a simple and quick process. I then created a workspace with my Literature Review where I could send emails to critical friends and ask them to provide feedback and edits.
I will be exploring the site more and will probably download the app to my phone to be able to have access to important documents. I am not sure if I will use the site for collaboration with faculty members since I did encounter some slow loading issues. It is difficult enough to get some faculty onboard with web 2.0 tools so introducing one that is slow doesn’t help my cause much. I think I might pilot the site with some of the IDs on my team first and see how that goes first.
AHHHHH (insert sound of angel singing).That is how I describe my experience with putting together my PLE (personal Learning environment) on iGoogle. The directions were a bit confusing but after getting onto my main Google page it all clicked.For the main page most of the work was done due to our month one assignment.Some of the links were repetitive but no harm there. Making the tabs was an easy process, as was adding gadgets.Having everything I need in one place is helpful and I will continue to add items o page pages as I see fit.
But as with anything, I have some minor complaints.I would prefer that everything be on one tab-but I understand that this could become cluttered.So, instead I wish the tabs were different. I wish they were located at the top much like IE (internet explorer).Just personal preference.I do like that each tab can be personalized with a new theme so you can quickly identify which tab you are on.
Though I added a twitter gadget I am not sure if I will enter my information. The one I have on there now I turned off after my twitter account was hacked twice.Since I turned it off my account has been fine…go figure. So unless I can find one that I feel secure with I will not be using that feature.
