Tuesday June 20, 2006
Tuesday June 20, 2006
Keypals Near and Far
Description
Keypals are similar to traditional penpals. Students work in pairs and communicate with each other electronically, usually by email. Students often suggest their own discussion topics. Besides just writing to each other, students can also share items such as pictures of themselves or artwork. Another way keypals can communicate with each other is by using a real-time text-chat tool such as IRC.
Key Findings from Readings
Harris says that keypal exchanges can be very time-consuming. If email messages are sent through a single class account, it can be hard for a teacher to manage. Likewise, having the class time and resources (such as enough computers) for all students to check and respond to email daily could be difficult. On the ePals Classroom Exchange site, descriptions are given of several different types of "pal" activities that can be done. One is ePals School Mail, in which students can email their pals. It also features discussion boards and has built-in language translation, which would be very useful when communicating with students from a foreign country. Another activity on the ePals site is School Blog, which allows students to have a safe place on the internet to collaborate with others. A third section on the site is ePals Mentoring, which connects students to businesses in their communities and experts. Safety is emphasized a lot on ePals, and would definitely be an advantage to using it, since the internet can be a scary place for students, especially in the elementary grades.
Applications for Teaching
There are a several ways I would like to use keypals. First, I'd like my students to become keypals with students at a school in a different region of North Carolina, such as the mountains or the coast, so that we could all share information about the state. Second, I would like to have keypals in another region of the U.S. to help with learning U.S. geography and history. Third, it would be really neat to correspond with students in a foreign country, especially if we could find a class to talk to in the native country of an ESL student in our classroom. I think this would really help my students make the connections between cultures. Of course, all of this couldn't be done at once due to time constraints. I would probably start with finding keypals in North Carolina. Keypals would also be a great way to integrate writing skills with social studies and technology. For example, writing in correct letter form could be taught, as well as "email etiquette" and how it is different from writing a traditional letter. We could also pull in blogs to provide more in-depth descriptions of our lives and locations, which would require students to write longer pieces that we could take through the writing process.
Posted at 01:46PM Jun 20, 2006 by DEAL, DONNA in General | Comments[1]
Monday June 19, 2006
North Carolina Wiki
Description
"Wiki" is the Hawaiian word for "quick." A wiki is a website that contains information about a topic that is added and edited by thousands of people. Any information that is put on the site can be deleted or edited by anyone else. There are no restricitions to adding incorrect information, but others will usually correct or delete it. An example of a wiki that is currently online that most people have seen is Wikipedia.org, an online encyclopedia with more than 500,000 entries. In the classroom, wikis can be built by students and teachers to share information with current or future classes, complete with relevant resources and links.
Key Findings from Readings
In the Engstrom/Jewett article, the authors describe a wiki project called Under Control: The Damming of the Missouri River that they did with middle school students. They chose to use the Twiki software program for this project, for several reasons. One, it allowed them to limit access to the wiki site to only students and teachers involved in the project, so students' privacy could be protected. Also, teachers could access all the wiki pages, but students were only allowed to access the pages for their small group, preventing students from changing (or vandalizing) others' work. In addition, Twiki uses a page-locking system, which only allows one person to edit a page at the time. A notice would pop up on the screen if someone attempted to edit a page that was already being edited by someone else. This prevented one user's edits from being deleted. Another key point Engstrom and Jewett made in the article was that the students needed to be divided into small groups of 4-6 students to minimize the chance of students attempting to access the same wiki page at the same time. A technology-related issue from the article was that some teachers experienced problems with students being locked out of wiki pages because they were trying to edit the same page at the same time. This seemed to happen more with teachers who were having their whole class use the school computer lab at one time to access the wiki. When teachers divided their classes into small groups in which each student had a specific job relating to different areas of the wiki, being locked out wasn't a problem.
Applications for Teaching
I would like to start a wiki about North Carolina with my fourth graders. Ideally, it would involve students and teachers from schools across the state. I know that would be a huge undertaking with permission needed from lots of principals, but with some work, I think it could be done. I would like to model it after Wikipedia to be sort of an online North Carolina encyclopedia. It could be organized by the state's regions - coast, piedmont, and mountains, and then students could be further organized into small groups by categories such as famous North Carolinians, history, cities, landmarks, time periods in the state's history, etc. The advantage to having schools across the state involved would be that each group may be more familiar with its own region, and also might have more access to materials about that region.
Posted at 12:40PM Jun 19, 2006 by DEAL, DONNA in General | Comments[0]
Saturday June 17, 2006
Book Club Blogging
Description
"Blog" is short for the word Weblog. A Weblog is an online site where someone can post his or her thoughts for others to read and respond to. Some blogs are done by individuals, and others by groups. After reading them, visitors can post public comments about blogs. Blogs can also incorporate graphics and multimedia. Typically, a blogger posts regularly to his or her blog (daily, or every few days, etc.) Some blogs are about a specific subject, and some are more of an online diary/journal for the blogger.
Key Findings from Readings
One important point made in the article by Richardson about new web technologies is that we must rethink what it means to be literate. While it used to mean just knowing how to read and write, students must now be taught to be "editors as well as readers" when examining information on the Web. They must know that just because something is posted on the Internet, that doesn't automatically make it true, and learn how to evaluate information in order to determine if it is factual or not. Another good point made in this article is that teachers should model appropriate ways to use online tools such as blogs. For example, a teacher could set up a blog about his or her classroom and teaching experiences. Richardson also mentions some safety issues to think about, such as students publishing their names with their work, and the possibility of inappropriate content popping up online.
Applications for Teaching
In reading about blogs, an idea that I had was to allow students to start book club blogs. This would be similar to a regular book club, which is popular with many adults, in which a group of people all read the same book and discuss it. For the student book club, a group of students would either choose or be assigned a book to read, and then they would blog about it as they read. Of course, some guiding questions would have to be provided, but hopefully students could take those as a starting point and add their personal opinions, thoughts, and feelings. I currently use Reading Response journals - for anyone not familiar with these, students write about what they are reading in a letter format and I respond to what they've written. The book club blog would be like a reading response journal, except instead of only me responding to a student's writing about a book, other students could respond as well. The other difference with a blog is that people outside the class can be pulled in, since the blog is available for viewing by anyone with Internet access. I would like to have authors contribute to the blog. It would be great if the actual author of the book the group was reading could contribute, but that might not be realistic. If not, maybe another professional author, or someone who is an expert in the field of something mentioned in the book, or has first-hand experience with some aspect of the book, could be a part of the group.
Posted at 11:11PM Jun 17, 2006 by DEAL, DONNA in General | Comments[1]
Thursday June 15, 2006
Digital Stories
Description
A digital story is a series of images, along with a narrated soundtrack, that tell a story. In the article by Kajder on digital storytelling, seven steps are suggested to help teachers being using this technology: write an initial script (what to say), plan a storyboard (what to show), discuss and revise the script, sequence the images in a video editor program such as iMovie or Movie Maker, add the narrative track, add special effects and transitions, and add a musical soundtrack (if time allows). Kajder emphasizes that using these steps is not the only way to accomplish digital storytelling, but that they are a good starting point, especially if teachers have not done digital stories before.
Key Findings from Readings
In the Kajder article, one of the "lessons learned" was to have students plan their scripts and storyboards away from the computer. This resulted in more focused stories. I would agree - computers can sometimes be a distraction because the students are so eager to get on them that they rush through the preliminary work. If I used digital stories with my class, I would require students to complete prewriting steps before using the computer. I also liked the piece of advice that Kajder gave to not "let the technology get in the way of the story." The focus should be on the planning and telling of a meaningful story.
One of the drawbacks to digital storytelling that Kajder mentioned was limited equipment, since most classrooms only have a few computers. This is true for my classroom, so we would have to go the computer lab. We have a scheduled weekly time in the lab, but it's only 45 minutes long, so I would be definitely have to schedule more lab time if I were doing digital storytelling. Another important point that Kajder makes is that since we are responsible for teaching so many objectives for the End-of-Grade test, those objectives would need to be aligned with objectives used for digital storytelling so that time can be used wisely. Since we have the writing test as well in fourth grade, I think time spent using digital storytelling as part of the writing process would be well-spent.
Applications for Teaching
I would like to use digital storytelling in my classroom as part of the publishing phase of the writing process. Students would already have their story planned and written on paper, so they would just have to adapt it to a script and storyboard for a digital story. I think this would be a great way to publish student stories, and the students would really enjoy it. We have a Young Author's Day at my school, and a digital story would be a wonderful published piece to have for that. I also like how organizing the script and storyboard echoes organizing thoughts before writing a story. Students would be able to see the connection between writing and a video production. This could be related to TV shows or even video games to help them see a real-world purpose for writing.
Posted at 10:00PM Jun 15, 2006 by DEAL, DONNA in General | Comments[1]
Saturday June 10, 2006
Using Handheld Computers to Organize Vocabulary
Description
Concept mapping allows students to relate new information to what they already know, develop a deeper understanding of the knowledge they already have, and see relationships between concepts. In order to do these things, students must link concepts to subconcepts, describe the relationship between them with propositions, and create cross links. The more a particular concept is understood by a student, the more subconcepts, links, and cross links will appear in that student's concept map. So, the more complex a student's concept map is, the deeper his or her understanding is, engaging students in more meaningful learning. Although there are several software applications that allow students to create concept maps on desktop computers, they can also now be created using handheld computers, with a software application called PiCoMap. Using handhelds for concept mapping have several advantages over using desktops, as noted below.
Key findings from readings
In the Royer article, several reasons students preferred handhelds over desktop computers are given. Students felt that handhelds were faster and easier to use. They also thought their maps created on handhelds were neater and more organized. Students were also more motivated to use the handhelds. From a teacher's perspective, the article mentioned that using handhelds made classroom management easier. The class did not have to travel to the computer lab, the teacher didn't have to know exactly when the students would be ready to start mapping days or weeks in advance in order to reserve the lab, and students who worked at different paces had plenty of time to complete their maps. One advantage to using desktop computers to create concept maps was found, which was that the maps completed on them tended to be more complex. One possible reason for this difference may have been that the entire map was visible on the screen of a desktop at once, whereas students had to scroll to see all the parts of their map on the handhelds. Jeff Royer, the teacher who used handhelds in the article, recommended that teachers use the PiCoMap software with handhelds when students' maps were going to be smaller, and desktop computers for larger, more complex maps.
Applications to teaching
We have a class set of Palm Pilots at my school, and I would like to try using them to have my students complete concept maps for sets of vocabulary words from various subjects. We have a heavy concentration of vocabulary in math, social studies, and science. By using the concept maps, students could see "the big picture" by illustrating the relationships between vocabulary concepts. It would be a lot more effective than simply having them write definitions on paper. We do concept maps on paper now, but I think that using the handhelds would greatly increase student motivation, especially for an area like vocabulary, which isn't the most exciting thing for a student to do! Once the concept maps grew big and complex enough, we could transfer to using desktop computers with our Thinking Map software to create maps.
Posted at 02:57PM Jun 10, 2006 by DEAL, DONNA in General | Comments[0]
Locationless Caching with Fourth Grade Social Studies
Description
*The information below about how GPS works is from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website.
Geocaching is similar to a scavenger hunt, but on a larger scale. Geocachers hide a collection of items, usually in a waterproof container, in a certain locations, then post the longitude/latitude coordinates of the locations on a geocaching website. People can search for caches hidden their area and use GPS (global positioning) handheld units to locate them.
I wasn't very familiar with how GPS worked, so I did a little Internet research to find the following information. GPS satellites send information to GPS handheld units. Each GPS satellite transmits data that indicates its location and the current time. The signals move at the speed of light and may arrive at GPS receivers at slightly different times because some satellites are farther away than others. When the receiver estimates the distance to at least four GPS satellites, it can calculate its position in three dimensions. There are at least 24 GPS satellites operating above the Earth at all times.
Key findings from readings
In the Lary article, a concept called "locationless caching" is mentioned. In this type of caching, someone creates a cache describing a certain type of object they are searching for, and others take pictures and/or write descriptions of this type of object and post them online with their longitude/latitude coordinates. Cachers don't need a GPS unit for this type of caching, so it would be great way to start incorporating geocaching into your classroom and allow students to become familiar with the process. On a related note, the article also mentioned "travel bugs," which are tags that can be attached to objects. A cacher indicates where the bug wants to go and "releases" it into a cache. Each time the bug is moved, the person who moved it records the movements on a geocaching website. Lary noted that travel bugs might be of particular interest to elementary teachers, and the idea does interest me, especially for sending a travel bug around North Carolina (see below).
Applications to Teaching
North Carolina is the focus of the fourth grade social studies curriculum. I would like to use locationless caching to allow my students to take a virtual tour of North Carolina. The students could describe various historical or famous NC locations they want a photo and description of, and people who visit or live near those locations could send them in. Some examples that immediately pop to mind are Jockey's Ridge, Cape Hatteras or another of the NC lighthouses, the state capitol in Raleigh, the Biltmore Estate, Mount Mitchell, etc. I would probably divide the locations into the coastal, piedmont, and mountain regions and assign groups of students to each region. This activity would be like a state-wide field trip! A travel bug could be used in conjunction with this activity by sending it around NC, and we could create a physical map of where it had been. I would really like to try this idea next year. A website I found for starting a locationless cache is www.waymarking.com.
Posted at 01:56PM Jun 10, 2006 by DEAL, DONNA in General | Comments[0]