Twitter Reflection

I have been using twitter for several months now and have always seen it as a social networking tool. I enjoy seeing what my close friends and favorite celebrities are up to. I never thought about educational twitters until this class. As I searched for educators to follow, I was amazed at how many educators tweeted valuable resources everyday, especially ones in my area of concentration (English as a Second Language) At first, I added these educators on my existing twitter account, but quickly realized I wanted to have a separate education account to keep my resources separate from the daily tweets of my friends. I am very happy to have found such a valuable resource in a fun social tool.

Podcast #9: K12 Online Echo: Remixing Histroy--Cigar Box Project

In this podcast, Neil Stephenson shares his philosophy on mixing up or implementing inquiry based work. These strategies are effective especially in History lessons K-12; so that students can be come creators of knowledge not just producers of knowledge. He shares a history lesson that he taught to his classes called the Cigar Box Project. In this project, he had students do research, collect historical images and wrote scripts, peer edited their scripts and collected images. Through this project, the students were able to do research on their computers and use technology to find historic images as well as have a tangible historical tool to use in presenting their projects. They used the cigar boxes as tools to share a story, and answer a question about Canadian histroy.

I personally think that this is a wonderful lesson to use in the classroom. It sparks student's interests about history and learning because they are able to be creative and use their outlets in the classroom to share with their fellow classmates. This is such a great way to use technology in the classroom to create a fun, 'remixed' lesson. I will definitely look into doing something creative like this in my future classroom.

EduTeacher Site Reflection

From the very beginning, I really liked how the eduTeacher website was set up and aesthetically pleasing. There is bulletin board on the right side of the site that has the most recent links, resources, and a newsletter that provides current information about eduTeacher.
With my concentration being in English as a Second Language, I was able to find several different tools that are going to be extremely useful in my lesson planning, assessments, and interactive lessons in the classroom.

60 Second Recap  
This site is a great tool for students to assess their knowledge of language, vocabulary or a subject in a quick minute. It is convenient and fun for students to use.

Ahead  
Ahead is a very fun site for students to create videos, using photos and text. This is a fun creative way for students to complete assignment and also a good way for teachers to introduce or facilitate a lesson.

Answer Garden
Is a nice feedback tool that teachers and students can use for brainstorming, mind-maps, and assessments.

Classroom 2.0 Site Reflection

Classroom 2.0 is a website that allows teachers to join as a social network to allow them to access any different resources filled with videos, live stream podcasts, links, photos and much more.
Personally I felt as if classroom 2.0 was a little cluttered and not easily navigated. I am not a very technologically savy

Podcast #8: Friends Don't Let Friends Use Internet Explorer, Ever!

Interesting views on how Internet Explorer is going "out of style fast". This podcast includes many different statistics and opinions on Internet Explorer and how it is quickly becoming outdated. For me, this is so interesting because the use of internet in itself is complicated enough. I get worried that sometimes technology is becoming way too advanced, and will soon become an elitist group of people that are creating, generating new websites, ideas, widgets, Internets, and much more. As a future educator, I worry that I will not be able to keep up with the changing times of the internet and in turn not be able to give my students the opportunity to use it as we learn together.

Podcast #7: Learning in Hand #23 Organizing Voice Memos

This podcast was extremely beneficial for teachers because the use of voice memos transferred from recording devices into iTunes was discussed in full.
This is a good way for not only teachers but students to access recordings, implement them into projects, assignments, and share them with classmates.
Also, if students were absent or sick for an extended period of time, teachers or fellow classmates would be able to share with the student what they missed and how they can make their assignments up through a personal voice note.
It is also a good way of documenting classroom participation, absent or tardy students, disciplinary problems, etc...
Overall learning in hand was a very helpful and useful podcast.