Final Project

I have used wikis, vokis, Google Docs, and other tools this year. My favorite, though, was Audacity. I asked my students to record their "This I Believe" essays in Audacity and place these recordings in the public folder. We played these recordings in class. Each student was assigned one essay to respond to in the form of a letter to the writer. Students could easily reference the recorded essays. The students enjoyed writing, recording, sharing, and responding to the essays in this way. I will present this project at our next meeting.

Wordle #2

I still don't understand "fetch the tag." Any suggestions?

Wordle

I created my Wordle with George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From" poem. I am co-teaching an Appalachian Literature course this summer, and George Ella is our guest speaker. I thought this would be something fun to post to Blackboard. Wordle is perfect for language arts. I need to continue playing with it because I obviously didn't understand the "fetch the tag" concept, which is why all of my links go to Google. I may ask my students to create Wordles from poems they write, or they could keep a list of favorite quotes from a novel and make Wordles from these.

Google Docs

I am trying something new with Google Docs next week. I invited each of my students to join the document in order to create one Power Point for the class. We are going to review a few concepts for the OAA this way. I used one document for all of my classes, but I invited each class to join separately. I'm not sure if this is going to work. I guess I will find out next week. The idea is that each student will clone the original slide, add his/her information, and save it to Google Docs. If this works, then it will definitely save a lot of class time.

Hot Topic

I had a very interesting conversation with some friends last night about technology. It began with how conversations have changed with the use of technology. We discussed how people will use their phones to search the internet when a question comes up in conversation. For example, you may be trying to remember the name of an actor from a particular movie when someone pulls out a cellphone and looks up the information. This conversation evolved into one about technology in the classroom. Everyone seemed to have an opinion about this, especially the concept of teaching students factual information they can access on the internet. It was fun discussing this with people who are not teachers.

Glogs

I am excited to learn how people are using/plan to use glogs in their classrooms. I tried using glogs this year as an outside required reading assignment. The students enjoyed creating these, but once again passwords were a bit confusing for them. I let my students play with glogs because they had never used them before. I would like to do this again now that they are familiar with glogs.

Other Tools Assignment

I like this wiki because of the way it is organized. It will be a great place to go to remind myself of tools to use in the classroom. I like Audacity because I have used it with my students, and it was very successful. It was easy for them to understand, and it added to the assignment. It wasn't technology for technology's sake. Animoto is another one of my favorites. I haven't used it in the classroom yet, but I created my digital story using Animoto. Again, it is simple, but the result is an impressive video. I found a new tool on this wikispace as well. It's called confusing words, and it is a "collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers. Words are grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused." I do teach "words often confused" to my students, but this seems like an excellent resource for them. I try to stress that spell-check will not catch these types of mistakes, and this resource will help my students to understand this concept.

Diigo Assignment

http://www.diigo.com/09vv0

The concept of Diigo is great, especially because students often collaborate on research assignments. However, I still think it is a little confusing. I was able to highlight, share, and annotate websites; but it took some time to figure out how to do this. I think if I supervised my students while they created their groups and practiced sharing research, then they could add websites and notes on their own. I would prefer paper and a highlighter for my own research, but I think they would like Diigo better.

Diigo Assignment

Jennifer taught my students how to use Diigo this year. They think it is a great tool, but I didn't notice many of them using it for their projects. I like the concept a lot, but I am still struggling with it a bit. For example, I just tried to join the group for this class, but I am not able to share my bookmarks with the group. It seems like Diigo will be like most new things with technology: confusing at first, but it will eventually make things much easier. I remember when I thought email was confusing! So, I will continue to work on sharing my bookmarks with the group this week. I will reflect on the process after I am able to do this.

Digital Story

Last week I created a digital story in Animoto and embedded it into my blog. Animoto is actually extremely easy to use, and the videos that it automatically creates look great. However, even though my video is only about thirty seconds, it took a long time to create it. The problem was that the pictures I tried to upload were too large. I finally figured out that I had to resize the images in order to speed up the uploading process. I downloaded a program that allowed me to do this. So, even though my video looks simple, it actually represents about an hour of work. In the future, I could create videos like this in a few minutes. The key is resizing the images in advance. I still don't know how to save this video into the public folder. I understand how to access this folder, but I can't figure out how to save videos in Animoto. Has anyone done this before? I created a digital story in iMovie a few years ago, and I have always loved the concept. I wanted to try Animoto because Nancy Bisbe introduced this program earlier in the year. It seemed like something that junior high students would easily understand. The problem with it is that you have to pay for videos that are over thirty seconds. I think it would be fun for students to create videos for novels with Animoto. They could select music, quotes from their books, and images that represent themes and concepts from the reading. I may use this for an outside required reading assignment fourth quarter. I know they would enjoy it.

Digital Story

I created this in Animoto:

Project #2

The students worked in Audacity this week, and it was successful! However, we encountered some problems along the way. I wanted the students to save their recorded essays in the public webcast folder, but they were not able to do this. We couldn't figure out why the students weren't able to save here, but I learned that they can save to the student folder. Most of the students were motivated to finish their essays, so they could record them in Audacity. I had a few problems with microphones and sound, but I expected that. One issue with an assignment like this is making sure students have access to microphones. I offered this during class, homeroom, lunch, and before and after school. We will play these recordings in class on Monday. I'm looking forward to listening to them.

Project

This week I introduced an assignment that requires students to use Audacity. They are writing "This I Believe" essays, recording them in Audacity, and saving them to the public folder. I plan on playing these recorded essays in class next week. Each student will be assigned one essay to respond to in the form of a letter to the student/writer. Within this response, students will identify nonfiction elements such as main idea, purpose, audience, author's viewpoint, etc. I will use each student's letter to determine if he/she has mastered the learning targets for nonfiction writing. I did something similar to this last year, but I did not use Audacity. Students were required to listen carefully to the essay as it was read aloud in class, but they did not have the recorded essay to use as they identified the various nonfiction elements. I love that the students will now have access to these essays in the public folder. This may be my final project for this class; I'll see how it goes next week.

Wikispaces

I have used Wikispaces this year to create a space for students to post their Vokis. Students created an avatar of a book character and made a recording about the book. They placed these Vokis on the Wikispace, so other students could learn about the books. I then created a link from my website to the Wikispace. It was difficult for some students to remember passwords and to follow directions for embedding their Vokis on the Wikispace. Also, I had to send an email to each student in order to invite him/her to join the Wikispace. However, it turned out to be a great way for students to learn about other books. The disadvantage to a Wikispace is that it is difficult for some students to understand how to add material to the wiki. Also, some students delete other students' work by mistake. This was not a problem with Google Docs, which is great for Word documents and Power Point presentations. However, when students need to share information (like a Voki or a Glog) a wiki seems like the best way to do this. I will continue to use Google Docs for group projects, and I will use Wikispaces for students to share individual assignments.

Google Reader

I added the following feeds to my Google Reader account from Google News: education and technology, Henry VIII, teaching grammar, and Tom Sawyer. I also selected "education and schools" from The New York Times site. Sometimes I find articles that relate to the novels we are studying in language arts, which is why I selected the Henry VIII and the Tom Sawyer feeds. It's always interesting to share these articles with the my students, and it's a great way to connect their reading to nonfiction writing. I have never used Google Reader, but using it to find articles, podcasts, and blogs related to literature is something I plan to try.

iTunes

I think I am one of the only people who does not have an iPod. I have a Zune, so I have never used iTunes. I couldn't access the video that explains iTunes U on You Tube (it said it had been removed), but I did find a video on the iTunes website. iTunes U is definitely something I would use in my classroom; it is a great way to share information with students. It reminds me of United Streaming. However, I don't know how I would do this without having it downloaded on my school computer (unless I am missing something). Even after watching the video, I couldn't figure out how to search for content on iTunes U, but I know there is relevant information that I could use in my classroom. This is definitely something I would like to learn more about in class next week. I'm sure my students will be able to explain this to me as well.

Voice Thread

This I Believe Assignment

Above is the Voice Thread I created for use in my language arts classroom. I am going to ask my students to write a "This I Believe" essay, and I thought that it would be fun for them to record their essays on Voice Thread. I shared one of my favorite essays by Bill Gates. I recorded "Unleashing the Power of Creativity" on Voice Thread. I have had some experience recording in Voice Thread, so it was fairly simple to create. Our librarian has been recording information on her website, and teachers and students have been replying to these Voice Threads. It seems like a great way to share writing. The example I found was called "Prepositional Poems and Historical Fiction Projects." Junior high students read their poetry and children's books as images of this work was displayed on the screen. This is how I see myself using Voice Thread. I plan for my students to read their work and upload art work or photographs that complement their writing. Here is the link to "Prepositional Poems and Historical Fiction Projects":

Prepositional Poems and Historical Fiction Projects





Here is my embedded Voice Thread:

Podcast

I created a podcast using Audacity, and it was extremely easy to record. I used my new tablet, which has a built-in microphone. My students are working on nonfiction presentations, and I wanted to give them some tips and reminders about what to include in their Power Point/SMART Notebook presentations. Of course, they have all of this information in writing, but I think listening to these directions again may be helpful for some students. I tried to put the podcast on my website using remote apps, but I couldn't figure out how to edit my website from home. Is this possible? I am going to put the recording on my website tomorrow at school and ask students to review this before presenting to the class. I may also include the podcast on Progress Book. I use sound recorder to provide feedback to students on their writing, but I have never created a podcast in Audacity for my website until now. I like this tool and will probably use it again.

Skype

I just finished my first Skype experience. It was extremely easy to create an account and Skype. I didn't really know who to Skype with, so my husband created an account. We had a conversation on the internet (even though we were in the same house). I think this would be great to use to communicate with people who I do not see often. It's definitely an awesome tool. I can't believe that it's free! It would be fun if students could use this to communicate with authors. I don't have many other ideas yet about how to use this in the classroom, but I love the idea of using it to talk with friends and family. The language arts teachers just received tablets, and I used this to Skype. It's perfect because it has a built-in webcam and mic.