I’ve been invited to work with second and third year students into their four year Bachelor of Education, Early Childhood and Primary degree. They are currently doing a unit called Using Computers in the Classroom where they will be investigating the use of technology such as blogs, Electronic Whiteboards, Google Document, Google Earth, iPods/MP3, Photo Sharing, SecondLife, Social Bookmarking, Turning Point (clickers), Video Conferencing, Wikis, My Sace/Face Book, YouTube, Podcasts etc.
My role will be to mentor them on blogging and it’s use in education. As part of this I will be sharing posts like:
- Share your Blogging Experience and Tips For Educators New To Blogging
- Student and Teacher Blogging that Succeeds
However I was thinking this is a great opportunities for us educators to inspire our future teachers.
So can you please share with us:
- What are the different technologies you use in your classroom?
- How do you use these technologies with your students and how it has helped them? e.g. Do you have any great stories to inspire them?
- Can you share some examples of how you use these different technologies with students for them to check out?
- What are your 3 most important advice to our future teachers?
UPDATE: Oops made a mistake with the link to Share your Blogging Experience and Tips For Educators New To Blogging – this has now been fixed! Thanks to Brtitt Watwood for letting me know there was a problem.
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Hey there! I am so glad to read and share on this topic. I do several things with my blogs and am always searching for the next idea for using technology in my classroom.
First of all, about the blogs. My primary reasons for blogging are to:
1. Create a user friendly hub of resources and information for my students.
2. Recap the day in class and include any documents, media or links related to the lesson.
3. Communication, of course.
4. Create a gallery of student products online rather than carry all that paper around everywhere. (See http://alenord.typepad.com/ninos)
I search for new Web 2.0 apps for the purpose of improving the quality of student products I ask from my kids. I teach high school Spanish and for years, the projects I would have my students do (and I would venture to guess other teachers as well) were heavier on art than on the information I asked of them. So, I search for things like http://www.glogster.com that take the emphasis off of the art and place it back on Spanish!
I would like to invite you and your students to take a look at the SMALL CHANGES; BIG RETURNS lens in Squidoo. I am collaborating with my teaching partner to give a series of workshops on how to incorporate web-based tools and resources as a way to engage more learners and make lessons more dynamic. As part of this effort we have compiled a list of mostly free, user-friendly tools we like.
My best advice is to plan a great lesson first and then find a tool that will help you accomplish the objectives. I think too often we get so excited by the tools that we try to make the curriculum fit the technology. Should the question be: “what can I do with a wiki?” or should it be: “I want students to keep a learning log in math, write a response journal about a novel, or consider how people in our community can reduce their carbon footprint in science class; what is the best tool for that job?”
At the end of the activity, it’s not good enough for the kids just to say they learned HOW TO DO a wiki. Rather, I want them to be able to tell others what they LEARNED about the topic in science, math, English, or social studies FROM DOING the wiki, or slide show, or website, or mindmap or whatever other tool I chose to incoporate.
It’s the teacher’s job to craft learning experiences that ensure students don’t just become more adept at using devices — but that they learn how to use these tools to learn.
@Ashley76 Not sure why my gmail account was bouncing with your email address but at least my home account didn’t. I prefer to use the term podcast and say video podcast if it is video.
@kymnie We still haven’t had the conversation about Facebook yet 🙂 . There are some institutions that are using them for connecting with their students. What are your thoughts on that?
Unfortunately there wasn’t enought time to cover blogging adequately and ideally it probably needs to be done over several sessions. I strongly recomment you refer to information on The Getting Started With Edublogs page as there is lots of helpful information there.
Just remember with all this technology the more you use it for your own learning the more you will understand how you can use it with students in a classroom. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need any assistance on anything to do with any Web 2.0 tool.
@Louise Thanks for sharing your tips especially your links to your wikis as I know some of the student teachers are looking at wikis and their use in the classroom.
My blogging and reading has been the best professional development of any of my 20 years of teaching. I suggest reading a variety of blogs including those that challenge what you think. Start by commenting and then blogging yourself. Learning really happens during the reflection and internalizing of the material.
Make your student blogging be a reflection of the material or application, but really the goal is to not have it replace a homework assignment, but to learn to connect and write creatively. I am still working on this one. This is a continual journey.
* What are the different technologies you use in your classroom?
I use a variety, always try something new, and show it to students who then can choose a medium that suits the assignment and tells their story the best. The wiki is the one tool that I use consistently and places more of the learning on the students.
* How do you use these technologies with your students and how it has helped them? e.g. Do you have any great stories to inspire them?
It is wonderful to see students become experts in different technologies and be part of an atmosphere where they learn from each other. Sharing and learning become standards. Students love the wiki.
* Can you share some examples of how you use these different technologies with students for them to check out?
My wiki from last year is https://mrsmaineswiki.wikispaces.com/
Edutopia also did an article about the wiki in my class that discusses some examples and provides student quotes:
http://hurricanemaine.blogspot.com/2008/08/wiki-woman.html
* What are your 3 most important advice to our future teachers?
Start small and don’t be afraid to try anything new. My students understand that we need to try to learn (and sometimes through failure) and one cannot know everything themselves but can learn from others. Everyone has more skills than they realize, they need the encouragement of others to bring it out. A teacher who never stops learning (from students, blogs…) and empowers their students to be creative leaders and problem solvers is a role model that students need.
I am one of the students that Sue is helping out. Today in class we are discussing what we learnt last week in class. Blogging is a confusing thing to start learning but after Sue’s help I feel more confident in using them. I want to be able to use this kind of technology with my students and so what Sue is doing is so valuable to upcoming techers.
I feel as a tech savvy 20 yr old that I already know a fair amount about different types of technolgy. I am glad that Sue came and taught us about blogs as I now have another resource available to me.
Thanks again,
Kym Slavin
Sue…..thanks for the link. My email is [email protected] I created my own edublog account yesterday and havent really had a good play with it yet. The kids are working like mad men. We will upload them to our own Podcast (or vodcast…not overly sure of web 2.0 talk yet) lounge.
Thanks everyone for taking your time to share your advice and tips . I hope that all the student teachers make the time to read these comments, the posts and check out the information you have shared. The best aspect is I know that others will gain from all the information and links you have shared.
@Lina, Geoff and Denise Thanks for letting me introduce you all to blogging. It’s unfortunate that time constraints meant that we couldn’t cover it in more detail however I strongly recommend that you work through the different links people have provided.
@Ashley Proud I tried to email you a link to check out on clay animation but unfortunately the email address kept bouncing on me. I thought you might to check out the series of post Kevin wrote on clay animation he did with his students.
@Westy Glad you are getting good use out of the Asus eePC. Your MyStudiyo quiz was excellent and I loved how you used the short videos effectively.
I have short-term English as a second language students of all levels in one class. Most of them have very little ICT experience. They are very motivated by the technologies I introduce them to.
* What are the different technologies you use in your classroom?
I use igoogle so they can get podcasts & information in their own languages. I also use a lot of CDROMs eg dictionaries & have MP3 players for them to take the lesson with them. The lesson vocabulary or conversation can be recorded at the end of the lesson & they can take it on their MP3 players.
* How do you use these technologies with your students and how it has helped them? e.g. Do you have any great stories to inspire them?
It’s great to watch a student who, a few weeks ago, didn’t know that moving the mouse would move it onscreen navigate through their igoogle page to send an email with their writing assignment.
* Can you share some examples of how you use these different technologies with students for them to check out?
I’ve just started to use bubbl.us for categorising. The moment they found out they could change colours, the motivation level skyrocketd. 🙂
* What are your 3 most important advice to our future teachers?
There’s really only one piece of advice: Don’t try to be an expert and never learn from your students. A teacher who’s stopped learning is not teaching effectively.
PS Thanks for the support of The Edublogger.
Hi Sue,My no1 web2.0 tool is blogging so I have written a post, linking to examples found in my students blogs to show the power of blogging for them. I hope that some of these stories are inspiring to those who look at this post as they certainly have been to me. The inspiration is only just beginning.
Other technologies used will be posted about, with appropriate links at some time soon. My post is found here at http://murcha.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/the-power-of-blogging/