Thursday, November 5, 2009
Interesting viewing.
Found this clip on youtube - Thank you to CEO's WEB 2.0 course to start my journeyhttp//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Module 10 - The Finishing Line.
It's been a whole term since I have been on this blog and a term since I completed module 10. Why the pause?? - Well basically for me the last school term was a term to try to implement Web 2 into my classroom and a term to work out how to put it all together.
As the children in my class are still young ( 6& 7 year olds), there have been some aspects of web 2 that I needed to break down to their level. At times I have thought "Wouldn't it be great to have an older class to try this with." However I've also found the benefits web 2 provides to allow for differentiated learning. I have a handful of students who have really surprised me, and have just taken off and are applying their learnings out of the classroom environment.
I get so excited when they come to school in the morning and say to me: "Did you see what I added to our class wiki last night?" or "Would you like to join my Blog/ Wiki Miss?" Their enthusiasm is contageous.
Had a few difficulties at first with Blogger as a tool for students - I needed to piggyback the children and create a class persona (Classmate 2007) to allow students to all sign into our class blog. As with Wetpaint as a wiki site- I love it. However I couldn't use it to create our class Wiki due to children being under age. Solved that by using Wikispaces.
On the other hand, there is still the need to keep the human element in teaching. It's sad to watch our current kindergarten class to be memorized by the SMARTboard but unable to sit still to listen to a story being read to them. It's sad to watch my younger daughter spend ages texting her friends but only having 2 second conversations with her friends on a conventional phone. The web is a powerful tool and the use of it in the classoom by a good practitioner can have a huge impact on learning. But there needs to be a balance.
For me the biggest change I have seen in my classroom is the level of collaboration. My children learn so much from each other. I provide them with the web 2 tools and instructions and they provide the learning. They have become a community of learners rather than just students in a classroom. My favourite quote from one of my students when I was asking them to reflect on their learnings on our class blog was " When we work in our ICT learning groups, you have more brains". I love it!
When I first started this blog I really felt that I was on my "L Plates" - how things have changed. My teaching since starting this course has totally changed. I'm glad that I didn't rush through the course and I took my time to try to implement things in the classroom. This has been real learning for me. My classroom has totally changed too. The children have become critical thinkers, they work together to solve problems and are confident to ask questions because they know what to do to search for answers.
The above applies to the majority of my students, however there are still a few who are not quite there yet. When I ask myself why, I realise that it's not because they don't have the skills because they do - I just think that the students that don't have access to the technology at home seem to have to work harder when they are at school. Becoming proficient in the use of these technologies takes time and practice.
The other thing that has changed for me and has enabled me to change my teaching, is improved access to technology. At the end of last year I disbanded the computer lab and I moved the computers into the classrooms. Further to this we purchased new laptops in trolleys for classroom use. Having these resources at hand has been critical. My students now can access a computer when ever they need it. Give them the tools and allow them to learn
Started as a Blogger on L Plates ........but I think I've moved onto my P's.
As the children in my class are still young ( 6& 7 year olds), there have been some aspects of web 2 that I needed to break down to their level. At times I have thought "Wouldn't it be great to have an older class to try this with." However I've also found the benefits web 2 provides to allow for differentiated learning. I have a handful of students who have really surprised me, and have just taken off and are applying their learnings out of the classroom environment.
I get so excited when they come to school in the morning and say to me: "Did you see what I added to our class wiki last night?" or "Would you like to join my Blog/ Wiki Miss?" Their enthusiasm is contageous.
Had a few difficulties at first with Blogger as a tool for students - I needed to piggyback the children and create a class persona (Classmate 2007) to allow students to all sign into our class blog. As with Wetpaint as a wiki site- I love it. However I couldn't use it to create our class Wiki due to children being under age. Solved that by using Wikispaces.
On the other hand, there is still the need to keep the human element in teaching. It's sad to watch our current kindergarten class to be memorized by the SMARTboard but unable to sit still to listen to a story being read to them. It's sad to watch my younger daughter spend ages texting her friends but only having 2 second conversations with her friends on a conventional phone. The web is a powerful tool and the use of it in the classoom by a good practitioner can have a huge impact on learning. But there needs to be a balance.
For me the biggest change I have seen in my classroom is the level of collaboration. My children learn so much from each other. I provide them with the web 2 tools and instructions and they provide the learning. They have become a community of learners rather than just students in a classroom. My favourite quote from one of my students when I was asking them to reflect on their learnings on our class blog was " When we work in our ICT learning groups, you have more brains". I love it!
When I first started this blog I really felt that I was on my "L Plates" - how things have changed. My teaching since starting this course has totally changed. I'm glad that I didn't rush through the course and I took my time to try to implement things in the classroom. This has been real learning for me. My classroom has totally changed too. The children have become critical thinkers, they work together to solve problems and are confident to ask questions because they know what to do to search for answers.
The above applies to the majority of my students, however there are still a few who are not quite there yet. When I ask myself why, I realise that it's not because they don't have the skills because they do - I just think that the students that don't have access to the technology at home seem to have to work harder when they are at school. Becoming proficient in the use of these technologies takes time and practice.
The other thing that has changed for me and has enabled me to change my teaching, is improved access to technology. At the end of last year I disbanded the computer lab and I moved the computers into the classrooms. Further to this we purchased new laptops in trolleys for classroom use. Having these resources at hand has been critical. My students now can access a computer when ever they need it. Give them the tools and allow them to learn
Started as a Blogger on L Plates ........but I think I've moved onto my P's.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Module Nine
Social networking - I've become addicted! It's taking me away from programming so I better complete this module and move on! Scootle - love it. I've been using it for a while now in class and have seen the improvements in the site since last year with its sharing function. I never used to tag my pathways , but now realise the benefits of doing so. I have found it a good way to differentiate learning - with different learning paths for different groups. Find that searching for the right resource can be time consuming - that's why I will start to tag.
Facebook - wow! For years I tried to discourage my kids from using it until I finally caved in last year. Now a whole new world has opened up to me. I can see online what is going on in the lives of my daughters and their friends (although I'm not allowed to add any of their friends!) I've managed to keep track of what my cousin is doing on her overseas holiday, and I've even made contact with cousins in Canada that I've never had prior contact with (- much to the delight of the grandmothers on both sides!) Now my daughter can practice her French language skills to talk with family on the otherside of the world. It's really opened my eyes.
I wonder if any teacher has create a Facebook page for their class? I don't know if I would use it as a teaching tool - kids would easily be distracted by the social aspect of it. In that regard, a class collaborative blogs or wikis would be much more useful as a teaching tool.
I found Second Life too much to deal with at the moment. Trying to navigate through it made me anxious. I found it overwhelming but saw the potential for older students. I can see it being used in subjects like History, Geography and Visual Arts. I need to go back and explore this further at a later date. But currently it would have no place in my classroom.
Twitter - my kids tell me it's bigger with adults than children. It's OK, but I don't think I'll be a follower. Not quite sure who to follow? Once again I feel this application is quite limited in regards to classroom use.
Facebook - wow! For years I tried to discourage my kids from using it until I finally caved in last year. Now a whole new world has opened up to me. I can see online what is going on in the lives of my daughters and their friends (although I'm not allowed to add any of their friends!) I've managed to keep track of what my cousin is doing on her overseas holiday, and I've even made contact with cousins in Canada that I've never had prior contact with (- much to the delight of the grandmothers on both sides!) Now my daughter can practice her French language skills to talk with family on the otherside of the world. It's really opened my eyes.
I wonder if any teacher has create a Facebook page for their class? I don't know if I would use it as a teaching tool - kids would easily be distracted by the social aspect of it. In that regard, a class collaborative blogs or wikis would be much more useful as a teaching tool.
I found Second Life too much to deal with at the moment. Trying to navigate through it made me anxious. I found it overwhelming but saw the potential for older students. I can see it being used in subjects like History, Geography and Visual Arts. I need to go back and explore this further at a later date. But currently it would have no place in my classroom.
Twitter - my kids tell me it's bigger with adults than children. It's OK, but I don't think I'll be a follower. Not quite sure who to follow? Once again I feel this application is quite limited in regards to classroom use.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Module Eight
At last I know what that funny little orange sign on my page means. Prior to starting this Web 2.0 online course, I had never read a blog before. However as I have progressed I'm finding reading blogs has become an important part of my professional development. Google Reader is a great way in which I can keep up with my favourite blog sites. I didn't have much luck with adding our Wiki to my reader - a strange magazine site kept coming up instead - I'll need to investigate more. But that is no different to anything else I've encountered during this course. - You need to play a bit - reflect a bit - work out how it can help you- and then go back and play some more! - and that's where I'm going now....
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Module Seven
Social Bookmarking - I can definately say I need it. Until now I really haven't saved bookmarks on my individual machine but rather used the bookmark feature on Myinternet. I have found this quite useful. However Delicious offers the benefit of sharing with others. (The only problem with the networking feature, is knowing who to share with and what their username is.) It would great to be able to get the children into the habit of using this feature - but would that mean that I would need to install the tool bar on all of the school computers?
http://delicious.com/deanne.distefano
It was quite interesting that when I was doing the recommended reading for this module, I became impatient with the amount of text to read. I have seen myself as a learner change while working through this online course. I have become someone who wants the information "now" and my change in learning style has helped me relate to my students who also seem to want instant information.
http://delicious.com/deanne.distefano
It was quite interesting that when I was doing the recommended reading for this module, I became impatient with the amount of text to read. I have seen myself as a learner change while working through this online course. I have become someone who wants the information "now" and my change in learning style has helped me relate to my students who also seem to want instant information.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Module Six
I wish I had known about Bubbl.us earlier. I've been looking for a tool like this for a while now. (And this one is free.) It makes mindmapping fun! It's a great tool to encourage children to brainstorm collaboratively. Having them create their own mindmaps gives children the opportunity to make the topic connections for themselves - it encourages them to link their ideas together. It is also a great tool for whole class summarys. I can see myself using it on my interactive whiteboard - can't wait to get back to school to give it a go ( Oh how sad is that!) It can also be used as an effective assessment tool in pre and post testing.
Glogster is also a great way to encourage online collaboration between students. A simple way to stimulate creativity - especially for those students who don't have the best "fine motor skills". The glogster education registered area is a great way for teachers to keep track of what students have created. Not quite sure how it would fit into my Year 2 classroom - but I'm sure with more time I'll find a way! Actually I just thought - I might show it to our Year 6 class and get the children to poster themselves ready for graduation night. I found that Glogster is a bit slow to run. (Don't know whether it's Glogster being slow or my frustrating new computer that my husband bought for me to stop the fights over the who gets the laptop - I want my old computer back!!)
Glogster is also a great way to encourage online collaboration between students. A simple way to stimulate creativity - especially for those students who don't have the best "fine motor skills". The glogster education registered area is a great way for teachers to keep track of what students have created. Not quite sure how it would fit into my Year 2 classroom - but I'm sure with more time I'll find a way! Actually I just thought - I might show it to our Year 6 class and get the children to poster themselves ready for graduation night. I found that Glogster is a bit slow to run. (Don't know whether it's Glogster being slow or my frustrating new computer that my husband bought for me to stop the fights over the who gets the laptop - I want my old computer back!!)
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Web 2 Course Half Time!
Well I'm half way through the Web 2 Course but over the past few weeks I haven't started any new modules. The reason - I felt I needed to put into practice what I've learnt! I've started a class blog - using Blogger. This has challenged me to recall things I've learnt and it has been really handy to go back to my Myclasses page to rework some of the things I had "forgotten" how to do. I chose Blogger purely because of my "familiarity" with this particular blog - however I don't think it was the best choice for my classroom practise. This site requires a gmail account which I couldn't give to my students. So what I have done is created an account using my details but used a class name ("Classmate") and password for all the children to use. I've asked the children to sign their names after posting just so I can keep track of who is saying what. Oh well trial and error - it's all about my learning journey!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Module Five
At last I've finished my reports so it's time I get back to exploring Web2! It's actually quite amazing that our reports are done all through the web. Our staff is now more proficient on Reporter Pro, so we didn't seem to lose any work to cyberspace this year!
The topic of digital story telling is one that I have become familiar with over the past four months. Earlier this year I attended a Digital Story Telling inservice at ACU Strathfield. This is where my journey with digital story telling in the classroom began. I use both Moviemaker and Photostory in my classroom. The children work collaboratively in groups to produce digital stories in any KLA we can. We particularly use it as part of our text type writing program where the focus is on structured language models and talking/listening activities.
Using digital story telling with the younger students (mine are in Year 2) was easier than I expected. I really only needed to show them briefly once using the smartboard - the kids then just took off. However what was essential was to teach the children how to storyboard and plan series of texts to show the "whole picture"prior to using any form of technology. - Yes I started with old fashioned pencil and paper. The scaffolds, script plans, storyboards, brainstorms and mindmaps became the most important part of the learning process. The technology was just used to communicate the story to others.
I have posted children's digital stories to Youtube. The children love it- they think they are famous. So do the parents- it's a great way for the children to show their parents what they have created in the classroom. I change the children's names that I use when I post their work and have parental permission. However after receiving a strange comment on one of my children's digital stories on Youtube (Some person with strong Religious and Political views) I have become more alert to the whole issue of teaching the children to be Cyber Safe.
I contacted the Australian Communication and Media Authority, who supplied me with the Cybersmart Guide for Parents ( which I sent home to all families) and a poster with Cyber Rules for safe internet use (which I've plastered all over the school!)
The topic of digital story telling is one that I have become familiar with over the past four months. Earlier this year I attended a Digital Story Telling inservice at ACU Strathfield. This is where my journey with digital story telling in the classroom began. I use both Moviemaker and Photostory in my classroom. The children work collaboratively in groups to produce digital stories in any KLA we can. We particularly use it as part of our text type writing program where the focus is on structured language models and talking/listening activities.
Using digital story telling with the younger students (mine are in Year 2) was easier than I expected. I really only needed to show them briefly once using the smartboard - the kids then just took off. However what was essential was to teach the children how to storyboard and plan series of texts to show the "whole picture"prior to using any form of technology. - Yes I started with old fashioned pencil and paper. The scaffolds, script plans, storyboards, brainstorms and mindmaps became the most important part of the learning process. The technology was just used to communicate the story to others.
I have posted children's digital stories to Youtube. The children love it- they think they are famous. So do the parents- it's a great way for the children to show their parents what they have created in the classroom. I change the children's names that I use when I post their work and have parental permission. However after receiving a strange comment on one of my children's digital stories on Youtube (Some person with strong Religious and Political views) I have become more alert to the whole issue of teaching the children to be Cyber Safe.
I contacted the Australian Communication and Media Authority, who supplied me with the Cybersmart Guide for Parents ( which I sent home to all families) and a poster with Cyber Rules for safe internet use (which I've plastered all over the school!)
Monday, June 8, 2009
Module Four
For me this has been a particularly long module to complete. Perhaps as this is an area I have not explored before. (Thank goodness it's a long weekend!) I still don't feel really comfortable with the uploading of personal images. I have kept my images private, so if you want to take a look, message me and I'll send you an invite.
Copyright is always a topic that as a teacher I have felt unsure of. I found going to the 'Frequently Asked Questions" page the easiest thing for me to do. No fluff and just straight to the point.
The Creative Commons site was a little difficult too navigate through but I'm sure that with more practice I'll find it easier.
Copyright is always a topic that as a teacher I have felt unsure of. I found going to the 'Frequently Asked Questions" page the easiest thing for me to do. No fluff and just straight to the point.
The Creative Commons site was a little difficult too navigate through but I'm sure that with more practice I'll find it easier.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
My Digital Natives On Holidays.
These are my three beautiful children on Burgess Beach January 09. This is my first attempt at using Flickr to add photos to my blog!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Module Three
Google Docs - facinating! Initially when I explored the program I simply saw it as something I wanted to show my teenage girls. I thought that at last I've found a way of not always having to have all those teens over at my house working on a group assignment. Yes they could collaboratively work on an assignment from their own homes!!!
However as I continued to "play" I started to see the benefits that it could have at a staff level. So this is where I set off on my own first project. I decided to create a form to survey staff as to where and when they wanted to have our end of year function - that way no one could complain! Well they thought I was pretty clever when they received their flash email with their online survey to fill in. Staff responses came in quickly and feedback was honest as a level of privacy was given.
I'm now also seeing it's potential in the classroom. As I already do a lot of collaborative teaching/ learning in my class, I can see how google docs can be extended into this. Having children working in small groups contributing to a whole class document would be a great starting point for me. I could also see the benefits of children completeing their research presentations through Google Docs. I think it would be more engaging for the students to be able to directly access a presentaion document rather than them all sitting around one SMARTboard just viewing.
However as I continued to "play" I started to see the benefits that it could have at a staff level. So this is where I set off on my own first project. I decided to create a form to survey staff as to where and when they wanted to have our end of year function - that way no one could complain! Well they thought I was pretty clever when they received their flash email with their online survey to fill in. Staff responses came in quickly and feedback was honest as a level of privacy was given.
I'm now also seeing it's potential in the classroom. As I already do a lot of collaborative teaching/ learning in my class, I can see how google docs can be extended into this. Having children working in small groups contributing to a whole class document would be a great starting point for me. I could also see the benefits of children completeing their research presentations through Google Docs. I think it would be more engaging for the students to be able to directly access a presentaion document rather than them all sitting around one SMARTboard just viewing.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Module Two
Well, well, I've managed to enter my blog details onto the Wiki page as required. However I did have a bit of difficulty linking my blog details. It's working now... but I suspect I may have got a little bit of help!
Liking the ideas of blogs in the classroom. As I work with younger students, I could see myself using them as literature response journals or even as simply for personal recounts. However today is not the day to ask me about doing anything on a computer after having had a frustrating day working on our school website. I would be really interested in finding out what other schools are doing for their websites.
Liking the ideas of blogs in the classroom. As I work with younger students, I could see myself using them as literature response journals or even as simply for personal recounts. However today is not the day to ask me about doing anything on a computer after having had a frustrating day working on our school website. I would be really interested in finding out what other schools are doing for their websites.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Module 1
Well this is a new experience. My teenaged girls are a bit worried that mum is catching up to them! This is a bit scarey for me.. but very exciting ...and addictive. I managed to set up my igoogle home page and felt that it was very similar to myinternet so that made my experience not so daunting. I found that I was getting lost working with wiki pages, blog pages, a few different email accounts. To make it easier for myself, I used the gadgets to create links for all of my new Web 2 accounts to be displayed on my igoogle home page. I will continue to do this to make all my accounts easy to access. Lesson 1 complete!
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