Tuesday, October 27, 2009
October 27th, 2009
I have decided that I want to create a imovie using still photographs. When I was thinking about what photos I have, it became apparent that I have the most photos of my son. I think that I want to show his transformation from birth (or maybe before) to now.
October 20th, 2009
When I was creating my role, I started by deciding on a name. I knew once i had taht, some of the personality of my character would already be there. I then thought of existing characters that would fit the role of a parent who believes that Google is making us stupid. Carol Brady came to mind. She seemed the perfect fit, from what I remembered of the TV show. after I decided on playing Carol, I went out and got a picture from the Creative Commons on Flickr and put it up on the Ning. I then had to think of the language Carol would use. I didn't think that she would sound too professional, and instead made her be a happy-go-lucky mom with an edge.
Most of the arguments that I came up with revolved around Carol's many children. I was able to give examples of how the use of the internet and phone technologies had effected her children's attitudes and work ethic.
I mainly used the sites Beach posted to look at arguments until we were all making arguments on the Ning discussion board and in the chat room. I then went out and found research that either proved or disproved what people were saying. That ended up being fun - information at your fingertips is a pretty incredible thing.
My position in this role-play were different. My personal position did not change, but it was interesting looking at the situation from another point of view.
I think that the use of an online role play would be a great tool to use in the classroom. I think that there were some kinks in ours that would have to be ironed out - the feeling of being overwhelmed when we were both posting and chatting being one. I think it would be good to have the students stay out of the chat room until the forum posts were closed. Then the students would know what to focus on. Also, I wonder if it would have been better to use tappedin to have the synchronous discussion and use the wiki to have the asynchronous discussion (I didn't feel that we needed to be on at the same time to post arguments, only to reflect at the end).
Most of the arguments that I came up with revolved around Carol's many children. I was able to give examples of how the use of the internet and phone technologies had effected her children's attitudes and work ethic.
I mainly used the sites Beach posted to look at arguments until we were all making arguments on the Ning discussion board and in the chat room. I then went out and found research that either proved or disproved what people were saying. That ended up being fun - information at your fingertips is a pretty incredible thing.
My position in this role-play were different. My personal position did not change, but it was interesting looking at the situation from another point of view.
I think that the use of an online role play would be a great tool to use in the classroom. I think that there were some kinks in ours that would have to be ironed out - the feeling of being overwhelmed when we were both posting and chatting being one. I think it would be good to have the students stay out of the chat room until the forum posts were closed. Then the students would know what to focus on. Also, I wonder if it would have been better to use tappedin to have the synchronous discussion and use the wiki to have the asynchronous discussion (I didn't feel that we needed to be on at the same time to post arguments, only to reflect at the end).
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
October 13th, 2009 - Wikis in the classroom
I have had some experience using and teaching Wikispace. Last year Sobriety High did not have enough money to have four full time teachers at every site. It was proposed that all the teachers create online curriculum that we could share between sites. The main proponent of creating the online curriculum, Larry, was a huge fan of Wikispace. He showed us the "Wikis in Plain English" and sent us off on our way.
Looking at Larry's finished product (a creative writing class), it seems that he was not using the wiki for any purpose other than a place where students could go to get their assignments. Then, the students were to create their own wiki page where they put completed work. He never (and through his example we never) used a wiki for collaborative work. The students would also post replies on nicenet to prompts and each other. It seems that this couls just as easily be done using a wiki page.
I can see using a wiki page as a resource for both the parents and the students, not to mention for me as well. I was thinking of setting up an Arona Language Arts Wikipage. On that site, there would be links in the sidebar to each of the classes that I teach - for example there would be a reading and recovery page.
When you get to the front page of the wiki, there would be a description of the class and what the student expectations are. On the sidebar to the R&R page, there would be links to each of the books we reading the class (This would be a cumulative list from all the years I taught this class). The student or parent would be able to click on those links and go to that wiki page (like the Comeback wiki page).
When you get to the front page of the Comeback novel, you would be greeted with - yes you named it - more links! These would include: a section about the authors, an overview of the book, journals, project ideas, and handouts/worksheets.
The first two sections would be mainly set up by me with links to other websites detailing the biographies and excerpts from the books if I can find them. The journals and Project Ideas links would be mainly student run and would increase in size each year I taught that same book. I would probably begin with having one journal question under each chapter. Then, I would have the students brainstorm journal questions and put them under the appropriate chapter. That way, they are taking ownership of that section and the journal possibilities will continue to grow. Same would go for the project Ideas section, except that I may not put any ideas under there to begin with. The students would use that section to brainstorm ideas and write a description of what the project is. I think that I would just need to make sure that the final product have enough work around it. I would do so by commenting on their page.
I would put the last section (handouts/worksheets) up as a resource for the students - if they missed a day they could just go on and see if there was anything they missed. Is there a way to put a calendar on the wiki page? That may be helpful.
Here is my class wiki.
Looking at Larry's finished product (a creative writing class), it seems that he was not using the wiki for any purpose other than a place where students could go to get their assignments. Then, the students were to create their own wiki page where they put completed work. He never (and through his example we never) used a wiki for collaborative work. The students would also post replies on nicenet to prompts and each other. It seems that this couls just as easily be done using a wiki page.
I can see using a wiki page as a resource for both the parents and the students, not to mention for me as well. I was thinking of setting up an Arona Language Arts Wikipage. On that site, there would be links in the sidebar to each of the classes that I teach - for example there would be a reading and recovery page.
When you get to the front page of the wiki, there would be a description of the class and what the student expectations are. On the sidebar to the R&R page, there would be links to each of the books we reading the class (This would be a cumulative list from all the years I taught this class). The student or parent would be able to click on those links and go to that wiki page (like the Comeback wiki page).
When you get to the front page of the Comeback novel, you would be greeted with - yes you named it - more links! These would include: a section about the authors, an overview of the book, journals, project ideas, and handouts/worksheets.
The first two sections would be mainly set up by me with links to other websites detailing the biographies and excerpts from the books if I can find them. The journals and Project Ideas links would be mainly student run and would increase in size each year I taught that same book. I would probably begin with having one journal question under each chapter. Then, I would have the students brainstorm journal questions and put them under the appropriate chapter. That way, they are taking ownership of that section and the journal possibilities will continue to grow. Same would go for the project Ideas section, except that I may not put any ideas under there to begin with. The students would use that section to brainstorm ideas and write a description of what the project is. I think that I would just need to make sure that the final product have enough work around it. I would do so by commenting on their page.
I would put the last section (handouts/worksheets) up as a resource for the students - if they missed a day they could just go on and see if there was anything they missed. Is there a way to put a calendar on the wiki page? That may be helpful.
Here is my class wiki.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
October 6th Class Post
The topic that I chose to find images for was that of beauty. I did not want to go the traditional route with this topis and only select images that society would deem beautiful. I chose to look at the beauty of aging. I looked on Flickr and found pictures of people from various cultures that had one main thing in common: wrinkles. That was actually my search term.
I feel like our society is afraid to age and get wrinkles . So afraid that we now come up with anti-aging creams and injections to stop that process. The people in the photos, however, have embraced their wrinkles and are beautiful because of it.
Dixie and I were talking about how to include Flickr in a poetry class. She was talking about haveing them come up with both images and song to go along with a selected poem. I took it one step further and thought it would be fun to have the students 1. write a poem, 2.put images and song to the poem and, 3.trade poems with a partner and have them put pictures and music to that same poem. After that was complete, the students would watch both versions and discuss their differences (if there are any) in the interpretations of the poem.
Here is my slideshow:
Using VoiceThread was great. I wasn't sure how easy it was going to be, but the tutorial was right in saying it wouldn't take very long. I didn't want to use pictures from Flickr, but I don't have too many personal photos on my computer. I pulled a few of these pictures from the website I made in the technology course while I was in the initial licensure program. On that website there was a section titled "About Me" which showcased my family. So, that is what this VoiceThread is about.
I feel like our society is afraid to age and get wrinkles . So afraid that we now come up with anti-aging creams and injections to stop that process. The people in the photos, however, have embraced their wrinkles and are beautiful because of it.
Dixie and I were talking about how to include Flickr in a poetry class. She was talking about haveing them come up with both images and song to go along with a selected poem. I took it one step further and thought it would be fun to have the students 1. write a poem, 2.put images and song to the poem and, 3.trade poems with a partner and have them put pictures and music to that same poem. After that was complete, the students would watch both versions and discuss their differences (if there are any) in the interpretations of the poem.
Here is my slideshow:
Using VoiceThread was great. I wasn't sure how easy it was going to be, but the tutorial was right in saying it wouldn't take very long. I didn't want to use pictures from Flickr, but I don't have too many personal photos on my computer. I pulled a few of these pictures from the website I made in the technology course while I was in the initial licensure program. On that website there was a section titled "About Me" which showcased my family. So, that is what this VoiceThread is about.
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