Re-Think...

As educators, it is our responsibility to be flexible and change our methods or ways of thinking to adapt to our students’ needs. I am glad that I am taking the initiative now to learn about these new technologies to use with students. I think it is important to use what the students know outside the classroom and bring it into the classroom. Therefore, using podcasts and videos and blogging in the classroom is a great idea. I have a lot of colleagues that have no idea what is even available to them to use with the students. I was one of those people not that long ago. I think we were just kind of letting the world pass us by and assuming that those technologies needed to stay at home and outside the classroom. But why not bring them in? I still wouldn’t use social networks in the class due to privacy issues but I’m sure there are ways around it that it would work for certain teachers.
Just the other day, there was a student whom I was tutoring where he had to use a cassette tape to listen to a story. I was laughing because he was struggling with how to even use the cassette player. He didn’t know how to put the cassette in and was clearly getting frustrated. It’s amazing but the age level I teach, I don’t think these students even knew what a cassette was. They are so used to the cds and dvds of today.
It is part of an educators job today to adapt what we teach to whatever style works best for our students.

Web 2.0 tools in the classroom

The Web 2.0 tool that I have liked best so far is the blogging. Blogger.com is a great resource. I didn’t realize how many people blog now. And they blog about anything and everything. It’s amazing. As far as using blogs in the room, I am going to incorporate it first into my babysitting unit when I have the students journal their thoughts on the babysitting project. I used to have students write journals on paper but now they can blog about it online and I can see it. They can then comment on other students’ journals and it could be a great learning tool even outside the classroom. The only thing I continue to worry about with using these type of online tools is the safety and security for the students.

Podcasts in the Classroom

http://melissavinciguerra.podbean.com/mf/web/5yd7jx/podcastweb20.mp3

I made a podcast as an overview of my 6th and 7th grade Family and Consumer Science class. I briefly explain in my podcast the 3 units for each class.

Communication and Collaboration, Research and Information Fluency and Technology Operations and Concepts are the NETS Standards applied to the lesson for students.

As far as using podcasts in the classroom, I would use it with my students for their nutrition project. It would help with my grading them. But also those students who need to hear the presentation again or those who were absent could hear it.

Flickr- Photo Sharing

I do like the concept of photo sharing on the computer. I would use this with my classes only if they weren't personal photos that students were using. I just worry that somehow the personal photos could be leaked out to the public and I wouldn't want parents upset if they did not want them public. I could possibly use photo sharing by creating virtual field trips with the classes on restaurants or lifestyle habits of various countries.


Communication and Collaboration is the NETS standard that this project will explore.

I cannot wait to play around with all these technology tools and explore what else I can use them for in my classroom.

Social Bookmarking

I can't believe I didn't realize something like this existed. I am one of those people who always adds to my favorites list when I am researching on the internet. But now that I know what social bookmarking is, it seems that I will be using it more often. When I was at different computers I couldn't save to the favorites or I would have a lot of colleagues mad at me. Now I can use delicious to save my bookmarks. It definitley will be a lot easier to find my favorite sites again. I also like that you can tag the bookmarks and sort of put them in their own little folders, (so to speak).

As of right now, I wouldn't have my students using social bookmarking in class but I will definitely be using it. It is very simple to use which was something else I liked about it.
My delicious site is:
http://www.delicious.com/melissavinciguerra

If I were to use social bookmarking with my students, I would be using the Communication and Collaboration and Research and Information Fluency standards. The students would be researching a topic and sharing their sites with other students. I just worry if what they are bookmarking is accurate to what they need.

Using RSS Feeds

Wow! I can't believe how the other day I went and subscribed to certain feeds and then all of a sudden today, what appeared in my inbox was exactly what I was looking for. I didn't need to go to google and type in my search and then look through tons of different articles. Rather what I needed was at my fingertips when i opened my inbox.
Health lesson plans was a topic I was looking for. If you look further down in my blog, you will see the information I found. Information that literally took minutes to find with RSS Feeds. Yay!
As for NETS standards, I am addressing Creativity and Innovation when I use the lesson plans I found on this URL. The one lesson I liked is using the grocery store ads with students to have them locate healthy and unhealthy foods.

Wikis

My experience with Wikis was an interesting one. I find them relatively easy to use though I am still getting confused on certain parts. I think I just need more practice. I created 2 wikis: one is for my 6th grade class, ( http://mvinciguerra585.pbworks.com/w/page/32150613/Getting-a-Babysitting-Job ) and the other was for this class assignment (

How will I use it?

In trying to see where I would fit blogs into my curriculum, I came up with using them throughout my 36 day course with my students. First thing I would need to do is ask parents' permission for this. I would need to clarify internet safety with the students and parents as well. After spending a few lessons on showing other blogs, my students would get started logging on to my blog and posting messages of their own. Throughout the cycle, I would have students send me posts about various things about it. For example, how they like the course, things they would like to see, changes I can make, etc....
Based on my students' responses, I would then see how I can motivate them and increase the learning going on in my classroom. I do wonder though how can I control other people, besides my students, from posting on my blog?
A challenge I forsee is with my technology department. So many sites are blocked and blogging is one of them. I need to show justification on how this would benefit my students.
The NETS are being met through the interaction, collaboration and cooperation with peers.

This is not my first time blogging, though I still don't seem all familiar with it. The first blog I wrote was a personal one about my mom who has brain cancer. I created that blog for another class I was taking. I still have yet to learn about how to incorporate blogs into my classroom lessons. I hope to do that with this course.