Trying New Things

This week I looked at some new Web 2.0 tools. I explored VoIP, GoogleEarth and LinkeIn. All of these were in a way new to me. VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol as they are known as is similar to using the phone but it is over the internet. I was familiar with Skype but not many of the others such as Oovoo or Tokbox. These websites are interesting and I actually have found that often people that do not enjoy talking on the phone enjoy using Skype because they can do more things such as show the person they are talking to items that are on their end.I could see myself using this in school for IEP meetings. Many times parents can not always make it in to an IEP meeting and they ask to attend via the telephone. If they have internet I could see Skype being more useful during a meeting so that parents can put names and faces together as well as the teachers can see the parents. The second tool that I looked at was GoogleEarth. This is a map that shows the earth, as it really looks. A student could be in class learning about a place and then go online and actually see the place. Finally I looked at LinkedIn. This website is thought of as a professional network. They're mission is to connect all the worlds professionals and in the end make them more successful because of these connections. I could see this website being useful in school to show student the importance of being connected to others. Also it could be used to help students understand what is important for them to do to reach their future goals in life. If they want to become a police officer they could connect with other police officers and talk to them about what they feel is important for the student to focus on now while they are still in school.

Using Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and blogging website that allows a user to make a post up to 140 characters long, similar to the length of a text message. This website is used by many to post what they are up to or things that they have found of interest to them. I have in the past tried to stay away from websites such as twitter because, if I got too into it, I could see it consuming my life. Twitter also makes it convenient to post by allowing users to post via text message from their phone, so the user is always able to access their profile to post. Personally, I could use this to see what friends are up to or if I wanted to keep up on Hollywood drama. Professionally, I can follow educationally relevant users to see new information that they share. With my students, I am not so sure I would want to use this with them. I do not believe I want them to know this much about my life and in return I do not want to know this much about theirs. However, I could see the use of the 140 character maximum in reading and summarizing materials. Many students do not know how to summarize so the small space would require them to pick out the most important information and not copy word for word from a book. So, while I enjoy the idea I do not know if I would specifically want to use the Twitter website. Twitter does have an educational website, www.twiducate.com that works in the same way that would be more teacher user friendly in my opinion, but there isn't the same easy access to it.

Technology-Transformed Learning Environments

David Warlick recently posted a message on his blog 2 Cents Worth about how technology is transforming learning. He specifically discusses what the learning environment should look like. He feels that learning should be question based in the sense that students ask questions when they run into a road block and then search for the answers. This kind of learning should cause students to have conversations with one another, their teachers, or beyond such as experts in the field. The learning that takes place depends on how the learner responds as long as it is authentic and relevant. The learning could then be considered more valuable and the learner must then make a personal investment. Warlick also used a great example with video games. A learner should be free to make mistakes much like a person playing a video game does. Each time a person plays a video game they make a mistake in different places that they will learn from for the next time and hopefully not make again.
The most prevalent point made in the post, to me, was the idea of safely making mistakes. As technology is so much faster and much more advanced then the old paper and pencil approach, mistakes are much easier to fix then they ever were in the past. It is so important for students to make mistakes so that they can learn from them. In so many other areas of their lives mistakes help them learn and move forward so we need to have that same thinking in education.

Four Things Every Student Should Learn?

Alan November an ed-tech consultant believes there are four things every student needs to know, but not all schools are teaching. He found that many schools are not taking the opportunity to educate students of the "Net Generation" on these important ideas.
1. Students need to learn about Global Empathy. He feels that since students have more opportunities today than ever before to connect globally students need to be more empathetic to other cultures. Students can easily access other points of view and since so many companies are world wide now, students will need to know how to work with people from other countries.
2. Social and ethical responsibility when online. November feels that by having schools simply block websites such as Facebook they are not taking the opportunity to educate students on being safe while on the internet. He points out that although they aren't using these sites at school they will still be using them at home.
3. He also feels that schools do not stress the permanence of information put out on the web. He gives an example of a deleted webpage that can still be found in the internet archive. Students need to understand that once something is deleted from the internet it doesn't go away, a person simply needs to know where to look for it.
4. Finally schools need to show students how to use critical thinking when using materials found on the internet. An example would be doing a Google search. The first website that pops up may not have the most important or relevant information in it, but just a wesite that is popular among surfers.

I believe all of these points are important, but I do feel that November is short changing schools if he thinks most are not teaching any of these. With schools being more diverse all the time students already understand that people have different cultures, attitudes and abilities. Any inclusive school is a perfect example of the understand students have for others. I also feel that schools do a good job with explaining the difference between a reliable and an unreliable source whenever research papers are written. Students know to look around and use internet databases instead of Google searches as the basis for their information. The other two points that he stresses are ones that should be discussed in classes such as social studies or ethics classes. These are the current events or a debate topic. Also many of these topics come up as teachable moments even if they are not directly in the curriculum. So as I do feel all these points are important to be taught I would not say that they currently aren't being discussed.

New Google Docs Experience

Wanted to share my new found love for Google Docs with everyone. In my department we are working together to make a new form to give teachers for our student's accommodations. I suggested the use of Google Docs and got funny looks from everyone involved. Once I explained that it's simply a Word/Excel/PowerPoint document that we can work on together they were more open to it but still confused. So I started a new document today and once they saw it everyone has been giving me great feedback. Theres still a few group members that are working on mastering email but it will come around. I wanted to share this because I get excited when I can use things that I learn.

Delicious is Yummy

I really like Delicious. The day after I dove into it I came to school and told a co-worker I discovered a whole new side of the Internet. I then got a funny look so I had to show her. I found so many great websites by using Delicious I started emailed them out to people left and right. I sat at my computer for over two hours one night just looking at websites that others had tagged. I then realized why they call it social bookmarking as well, I could have saved time explaining why I was emailing websites to individuals. If they would have also had a Delicious account I would not have had to send so many emails. Another reason I really like Delicious is because I often forget to add a website to my favorites list mostly because I'm lazy. Most of the websites I visit on a regular basis are in my scroll down menu at the top of my browser. However, if you get a virus on you computer and have to have it cleaned out, all of those websites are gone, which I recently learned the hard way. Has I known about Delicious earlier I would have all those websites saved in my account.

Diigo and Delicious

Social bookmarking websites such as Diigo or Delicious can be thought of as a Favorites button on a computer, except they are online so one can access them from any computer. These sites can be used to search, organize, share and manage websites. Each bookmarked website can be given one or more "tags" to organize the sites into categories of information.
For example an elementary teacher might want to look up helpful math and English websites. Once found the teacher can then tag the websites which in essence puts the sites into electronic piles based on the materials tags.
Some advantages to social bookmarking include people tagging the websites based on what they found usefully instead of a machine. This leaves room for organization based on one's way of thinking and not what technology deemed important. A social bookmarking site will also record how many times a website has been bookmarked which shows if many or only a few people found a site useful.
However, there are a few disadvantages as well including the idea of no common vocabulary. An example of this might be two individuals that are both looking for websites about skateboarding. One may tag all their sites as "boarding" while the other "skateboarding" because they use different tags the two would not realize to check out each other's bookmarks. In addition, as I found, if one makes a spelling error or uses different punctuation it makes the tag different from other similar tags.
Diigo and Delicious are both essentially the same however, Diigo has one feature that Delicious currently does not. In Diigo one can highlight materials of importance on web pages to aid in the organization of materials.

Google Documents

I enjoyed using Google Documents. When I watched the YouTube video explaining Google Documents I thought to myself what a great idea. To put the idea of Google Documents into my own words it is a Word Processor or PowerPoint program that can be used by many people at the same time. One person can type up a file, save it and then share it with others to be edited. Once they are done their changes are saved for all others using this file to see. Instead of using a word document where one would have to save it, attach it as a file in an email, send it to someone else, have them look at it, send back changes and then the original person would have to make changes to their original. Google Documents saves time and brain power. In addition it was pretty great how the survey results came back and compiled themselves instead of having to enter all the responses by hand. I could see the use of Google Documents in group projects to be much more effective.
I can think of an instance a few summers ago where a group of my co-workers were trying to put together a PowerPoint for a presentation they were going to do on co-teaching, from their homes. The use of Google Documents would have saved the organizer of the project a lot of time. I wish I would have known about this earlier. I see Google Documents as an easier way to edit materials with out such a large "paper" trail.

My Thoughts on Wikipedia

We all must have heard of Wikipedia by now. I'm always telling my students not to use it, but then I go and use it all the time. I need to start showing my students how to use it as a starter not as the finish line. However, usually when I use it I never add to it, I find the basic information I need and then move on. Although I haven't added to it I do appreciate the founders creativity in making this site as well as all the people that do take time out to make it what it is. Wikipedia is a great Wiki but I do not think many people use it as a form of communication as much as they do as a source of (not always reliable) information.

Using Wiki's for Professional Development

I have yet to decide if I am a true fan of Wiki's. I enjoy that multiple people can add to them, but I do not like that only one person can work with them at a time. This can be frustrating for someone that has a busy schedule and needs to plan out their work time. I can see how a blog would be nice in comparison as long as you know ahead of time who the blog belongs to and if they have professional credentials, in addition to multiple people being able to use it at once. However, using a wiki could be great for getting ideas. I always look for new ideas to present the same materials, as many of my students need that. Sometimes the first three ways do not work but that fourth way you finally see a spark. I also see them as a positive way to find more age appropriate materials. Often times the skills of some of my students are low but they still have high school interests so talking to other educators about how to tie these two together would be great. Even as I looked through many different wiki's I noticed that they all were focused on age or grade appropriate materials. I believe if I started following some of these and adding to them I would begin to see more relevant materials for some of my classes. Even as I looked through wiki's titled Consumer Math the skills being addressed would be to high for my students. I believe that since this is new, as I dig in deeper, relevant materials for my specific uses will come out.