Learning in the 21st Century

Every great story has to have an end.  I feel like singing that song, “I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together” (at the end of every Carol Burnett show).  This experience reminds me of an online college course on a summer fast track. I have learned so much from this course. There were times I didn’t think I would finish, but I did. As I stated in earlier posts, I didn’t think the new technology would be anything I would use in my classroom. I only wish I had known about all of these Web 2.0 tools sooner.

What’s next?  I am planning to set up a Wiki page with my teaching partner that we can use in our classroom this year.  I’m sure it will be hard to get it up and running, but worth it in the long run. I hope we can remember to start small and then add more next year. We both always jump in feet first, and then we have too much on our plate.

The things I learned about and use the most are Google Reader, Delicious, Wiki, and blogs. I am addicted to Google Reader. I love using my Delicious tags and I have shared it with several people already. I love being able to pull up my favorites/bookmarks on any computer. I knew there were people who were blogging and had Wiki pages, but had no idea how to incorporate them in my classroom. I think we have to continue to grow with technology and get our students ready for the world whether they go to college or go out into the work force. It’s hard to keep up with it all, but it’s worth it in the end.

Classroom 2.0 is so informative.  The idea behind it is sharing ideas and resources about Web 2.0.  Why didn’t I think of that.  I get some of my best tips from other teachers when I go to workshops.  I enjoy getting to know other people and sharing ideas about what they use in the classroom.  I am one of those people who doesn’t know a stranger after a ride on an elevator.  Classroom 2.0 is the same thing, only better.  You can share over the internet, which is economically efficient and less amount of time spent outside the classroom.  With the drop in education funding, teachers won’t be going to many outside workshops.

One of the articles was about using Web 2.0 in elementary school.  The writer linked his Delicious account feed.  Have I mentioned how much I love using Delicious?  That is the best thing ever.  If you read the “welcome” pane on Classroom 2.0, it has a link to join the Beginner Group if you are new to Web 2.0.  I guess you have to crawl before you can walk.  It has a discussion board about the topics and articles on the website.  The teachers will help you with any technology problems you might have.  I also found it user-friendly for choosing articles that pertained to elementary and not secondary.  I will be adding this Classroom 2.0 to my top 10 favorite websites. 

I went to the Educational Network blog and looked at some articles and blog.  One interesting blog posted was “Friending Students on Facebook.”  It was an interesting article about using Facebook on the classroom — good and bad.  One of the points made in the blog was that some teachers have lost their jobs because of the pics they posted on Facebook of themselves drinking.  That is something to think about.  When you post something on Facebook or any social network, anybody can see it, even your students.

I wish I had never heard about Google Reader.  I am so addicted to it.  I have to tell myself not to open it like I have to talk myself out of eating a piece of cake.  I’m going to be the leader of a Google Reader Anonymous group — “just say no” to Google Reader because you will get nothing done once you open it.  Skimming through it isn’t the problem.  There’s just so many interesting things to read.  I’m guessing when school starts I will be less likely to indulge.  I need to remember to click on the star as well.

One of my favorites that comes through my Reader is Free Technology for Teachers.  In his latest article, he linked Common Craft videos.  Those are the same ones we used in this class.  I like those too as they are easy to understand and the visual images make it interesting.  Under Free Resources for Educators, there was an article about using Nitro PDF.  Has anyone ever used this?  I thought it looked like a great idea for turning word documents to PDF documents without buying the program.  I would love to hear from someone who uses this.  I don’t want to download it and find that it has messed up my computer. 

Check out this cool video I found on the ISTE 2010 Conference website.  The video is called “Podcasting: Living in a Digital World.”This conference was held this past year in Colorado and technology was the subject.  I wonder if there is a conference like this in Texas?

I know we didn’t have to do Thing 21, but I wanted to try it out.  I don’t think I would every use Pageflakes.  Yes, the ads are annoying, but I don’t like having so many things on one page.  I guess that is my personal preference, but there is too many boxes to look at which are not pleasing to the eye.  The page was too busy and I couldn’t stay focused on one thing.  To each his own.

I could have really used Google Documents when I worked downtown in a law firm.  There were so many people working on a brief or other legal document, and it was hard to keep up with the changes everybody was making.  I believe having a central place for one document is an great idea when teachers are working on a note/letter to send home with students with information about an upcoming event.  I need to find out if we can access Google Docs at school — probably not since we cannot log in to GMail.  This might be a good thing to talk to our technology department about.  Right now we use our shared drives for documents that we share on our campus, which is still better than emailing back and forth.

One of my favorite YouTube videos is Kim Sutton of Creative Mathematics.  I have been to a couple of her workshops.  If you are a math elementary teacher (K-5), you would benefit from watching her on YouTube or attending one of her camps or workshops.  They are well worth the money.  I like to watch Steve Spangler with his science experiments.  He shows you the materials you need and demonstrates how to do them.  I have embedded one of his videos from YouTube below.

I have perused TeacherTube before and have found some interesting things on there.  I get annoyed with the ads before each video.  I’m sure if you register you do not have to listen to the ad clip before each video.  Using either TeacherTube or YouTube would be a great way for students to record a skit or share what they have learned in a video.  It could then be posted and shared with their parents and friends.

I finally got back to Thing 18 to finish my podcast. Making the audio clip was easy, it was converting it to an MP3 that took a while. dede0017 found directions on the internet and then she walked me through it. I uploaded it into Podcast and then attached a picture to go with the audio. I like having at least a picture to go with the audio. It makes it more interesting and then you can imagine the person actually speaking. Podcast would be a great way for a teacher or students to describe what they were doing in a picture that was posted on a blog or Wiki.  My podcast is of me telling a couple of silly jokes.

Powered by Podbean.com

OK — It’s official, I am on overload.  My brain is so full of Web 2.0 information.  I think my head is beginning to spin.  I had no idea (I’ve noticed every one of my blogs starts out with “I had no idea”) that there were podcasts on iTunes. My kids have iTunes on our home computers, and they have iPods, but I didn’t think there was anything on iTunes by music.  It’s probably a secret they have to keep me off of the computer.

I previewed and subscribed to  “Mental Math Secrets.”  I will definitely use some of his tutorials in my classroom.  I liked how he used the same “math language” I use, but had a different way of explaining mental math.  I believe teaching mental math in elementary is important for students.  It helps them when they move into the higher grade levels to quickly reduce fractions, etc. — especially for algebra. 

I am so glad I am taking this class with my teaching partner.  I need someone to discuss these “Things” with because there are so many tools out there to use.  I don’t know which one does the best thing.  I guess I will figure that out as time goes by.

LibraryThing would be a great way to search for a particular genre a student likes.  If you can find what interests a child has, it makes it much easier to get them interested in a series of books to keep them reading.  I like using literacy for math skills in my class.  You never know when a student might catch on to a skill after it is presented in a story.  I do not teach reading, so I would not be apt to use the site very much.  I don’t think I would store information about books I read.  It might be a great idea for some people.  I think it is a good tool for searching information and not storing information.  I did like the photos in Flikr for LibraryThing. 

I created my Delicious account and started adding math sites.  The best feature of this website is that you can search in Delicious for other viewers’ tags, and you can save your own.  What a great way to keep your “favorites” from overflowing with websites.  I think that is one of my addictions — collecting websites in my favorites.  I have a ton of folders full of stuff and I forget what all I have.  I have saved the links on word documents and everything you can think of to keep them organized and easy to find.  I hope we can access this website at school.

http://delicious.com/surehoppy