One of my favorite teachers is David Warlick. No, I never actually had him as a classroom teacher, but I've been to many of his presentations, read his blog, and have read his book and have learned a lot from him. Anyway, in his book he mentions how blogging has really impacted the world today, really making a show in politics. The way that blogging has impacted education is even more amazing.
Yesterday, Apple's Steve Jobs gave a keynote where he introduced the iPhone, available in June of 2007. According to a news article, there are now hundreds (if not thousands) of blogs already about this new toy. Okay, so this has nothing to do with education, but can you imagine the lessons that can be taught with these blogs? Watch the original keynote (found at the bottom of the link above) and then have the students read the thoughts and journalistic opinions of others. How many report facts? How many report opinions? What are their thoughts on this new gadget? Can they tell you how this will impact education?
In eSchool News there's an article on how webcasts are really providing a boon to the sports of smaller schools. Now I'm not athletic myself, but I do support sports in schools. I even watched the webcasts to keep up with the football games from Sumter when I moved. Now let's take these webcasts that college sports are going to make use of and see how we can use them in education. Simple idea that comes to mind is actually having your students create a webcast of the science experiment and explain how they are solving it. Or maybe they can do a webcast of interviews as they research an era of history. Sharing what they learned in a verbal sense gives them a chance to re-evaluate what they learned and if they are watching webcasts created by other students, then they are also learning from those students. Score one for education!
Podcasts are very similar to a webcast, but they are usually only the audio files. I take that back, lately you can watch enhanced podcasts with images or videos enhancing what the podcast is about.
How do you use these tools in your classroom? Which one is your favorite? Have you seen your own impact?
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Monday, January 8, 2007
Marzano and Web 2.0
One of the best things my former boss had us do was read professional books. One of her favorite authors was Marzano and his series on "....that Works" in education today. I say that it was one of the best because if you know me, my preferred reading lends towards fictional. Great way to escape.
She was our biggest ally for getting technology in education, but on one occassion she admitted that she wasn't sure that technology actually made a difference in today's classrooms. I wish I had her new email address so I could send her a Wiki like site I found while browsing the Internet today. I started with a website about Educational Technology That Works. Quickly it reminded me of Marzano and so my curiosity got the better of me. Wasn't I surprised when I found out that there was a whole section on Marzano and Web 2.0?
He strongly encourages blogs and wikis to help students take their learning to a higher level. He demonstrates how something as simple as notetaking using a wiki will take the basic summarization skill and push it up to the top level of HOTS and make them analyze their notes before they actually publish them to the Wiki. There are even examples for what is otherwise basic use of the Blooms Taxonomy and how the Web 2.0 actually takes those baby steps screaming to the top of the taxonomy.
What's even more impressive is the list of tools and connections to make this work. I was impressed with the list. You can also participate in the Wiki and share more information from each article.
Do you have a district that believes in Marzano's work and studies and yet won't let you blog or use other web 2.0 tools in your classroom? Well ladies and gentlemen, don't present them the works of the greats like Will Richardson and David Warlick- people they don't even know. Instead, pack this website and it's research in your arsenal. His name might just be what you need.
Or it could end the readings of his books for the next bookstudy. :-)
She was our biggest ally for getting technology in education, but on one occassion she admitted that she wasn't sure that technology actually made a difference in today's classrooms. I wish I had her new email address so I could send her a Wiki like site I found while browsing the Internet today. I started with a website about Educational Technology That Works. Quickly it reminded me of Marzano and so my curiosity got the better of me. Wasn't I surprised when I found out that there was a whole section on Marzano and Web 2.0?
He strongly encourages blogs and wikis to help students take their learning to a higher level. He demonstrates how something as simple as notetaking using a wiki will take the basic summarization skill and push it up to the top level of HOTS and make them analyze their notes before they actually publish them to the Wiki. There are even examples for what is otherwise basic use of the Blooms Taxonomy and how the Web 2.0 actually takes those baby steps screaming to the top of the taxonomy.
What's even more impressive is the list of tools and connections to make this work. I was impressed with the list. You can also participate in the Wiki and share more information from each article.
Do you have a district that believes in Marzano's work and studies and yet won't let you blog or use other web 2.0 tools in your classroom? Well ladies and gentlemen, don't present them the works of the greats like Will Richardson and David Warlick- people they don't even know. Instead, pack this website and it's research in your arsenal. His name might just be what you need.
Or it could end the readings of his books for the next bookstudy. :-)
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Web 2.0
I was having a Google Email Conversation with another educator the other day and we were talking about Web 2.0 features and how the new tools sure do make it easier to network with each other and to share resources.
Now before we get started on my comment back to the above thought, I want to also say I am not a geek. I wish I was. I admire those who can talk the talk. I am not the first to use the latest technology tool, only because there are so many things out there and I look at how they are being used before I put them in my toolbox. One way of keeping up with what's out there is by reading blogs by the masters, such as Steve Dembo, and reading eSchool News.
Okay, so back to my Google discussion. What I find amazing is that I have belonged to a network of teachers from all over the United States without corporate sponsorship since 1999. I had just left elementary school and was going into middle school. I wanted to find some guidance on how to handle these loveable hormonal students. I searched through various lesson plan pages and then I searched for other topics. Then someone emailed me to join them in a Yahoo Group and from there I was able to find "I Must Be Crazy, I Teach Middle School." In the early days, this group was active. We shared ideas via the discussion boards. I believe some even posted resources on the Group Site. I even started one for my students and used it to post homework, photos from the classroom, have a discussion on topics from class and so forth. They had to be invited in so we didn't get the spam that we sometimes got from the Middle School group. As my master's classes came to an end, we started a group as well in order to keep in touch. My high school reunion was also planned via a Yahoo Group.
But alas, the groups are not what they use to be. They took something that was easy to use and practically destroyed it. The only people still on the Middle School group are over powered by the spammers. It's a sad world. But now we have discussion boards, sharing of resources thanks to organizations like the Discovery Educator Network.
Or could always make use of the Web 2.0 tools and create your own community using Drupal.
The other tool I used a lot was BackFlip. I was never on the same computer twice and was always needed a site that I had found at another point. I enjoyed sharing bookmarks with other educators this way as well. Now, we use a new tool called del.icio.us . It's a neat tool and I have enjoyed the other bookmarks I have found from there.
I'll admit that I like the new Web 2.0 and the fun things that it brought, but some of this hype's been around for awhile. Just a new approach to grab your interest.
Now before we get started on my comment back to the above thought, I want to also say I am not a geek. I wish I was. I admire those who can talk the talk. I am not the first to use the latest technology tool, only because there are so many things out there and I look at how they are being used before I put them in my toolbox. One way of keeping up with what's out there is by reading blogs by the masters, such as Steve Dembo, and reading eSchool News.
Okay, so back to my Google discussion. What I find amazing is that I have belonged to a network of teachers from all over the United States without corporate sponsorship since 1999. I had just left elementary school and was going into middle school. I wanted to find some guidance on how to handle these loveable hormonal students. I searched through various lesson plan pages and then I searched for other topics. Then someone emailed me to join them in a Yahoo Group and from there I was able to find "I Must Be Crazy, I Teach Middle School." In the early days, this group was active. We shared ideas via the discussion boards. I believe some even posted resources on the Group Site. I even started one for my students and used it to post homework, photos from the classroom, have a discussion on topics from class and so forth. They had to be invited in so we didn't get the spam that we sometimes got from the Middle School group. As my master's classes came to an end, we started a group as well in order to keep in touch. My high school reunion was also planned via a Yahoo Group.
But alas, the groups are not what they use to be. They took something that was easy to use and practically destroyed it. The only people still on the Middle School group are over powered by the spammers. It's a sad world. But now we have discussion boards, sharing of resources thanks to organizations like the Discovery Educator Network.
Or could always make use of the Web 2.0 tools and create your own community using Drupal.
The other tool I used a lot was BackFlip. I was never on the same computer twice and was always needed a site that I had found at another point. I enjoyed sharing bookmarks with other educators this way as well. Now, we use a new tool called del.icio.us . It's a neat tool and I have enjoyed the other bookmarks I have found from there.
I'll admit that I like the new Web 2.0 and the fun things that it brought, but some of this hype's been around for awhile. Just a new approach to grab your interest.
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