An Application for Digital Storytelling LIS568

Being an educator during the 21st century, where technology continues to emerge in innovative ways, certainly allows for an interesting day within the classroom.  Such technology can lead to unbelievable student engagement when implemented correctly.  As educators, it is our job to understand emerging technologies, 21st century skills, and overall best pedagogical approaches that will lead to an effective and relevant education for our youth.  It is one thing to just use current technology to take place of traditional methods, such as digital journaling versus paper and pencil journaling, and it is another thing to use current technologies to provide students with an education that will allow for success in their college and career endeavors.  For example, I have found Storybird very beneficial in my classroom only after I modeled to my students what was expected and provided guided practice with such. The stories that were created before those expectations were set, during the introduction stage of the application, provided very little substance and creativity.  Thus, with every piece of technology we use in the classroom it is very important we provide students with an understanding of expectations they should be striving for when using such technology.  We can’t expect students know how to use such technology effectively and appropriately no matter how comfortable they seem when using the technology itself.

Storybird is a digital storytelling tool.  The tool allows students to create three different types of books, longform books (multiple chapters), picture books (basically one chapter with multiple pages), and poems (one image with writings).  Unlike other digital storytelling applications, Storybird allows their users to receive a final copy in a high resolution digital download, a soft cover book, and/or a hard cover book.  Whereas the soft and hard cover book cost money, users can earn “crowns” (digital token like things) to purchase a digital PDF copy.  Users can receive digital crowns by submitting work and winning challenge contests (different contests posed by the application), getting a work approved by a public library, and/or partaking in daily writing.  The daily writing is where my students earn their digital crowns, as all they have to do is log into Storybird and create/edit any of their writings.  It is a major incentive for students to earn the ability to “purchase” a digital PDF copy of one of their own creations by being creative writers!  Furthermore, students can “purchase” their fellow classmate’s creations as well if they wanted to!  

As the teacher I am able to set up a digital class through which students join by using a class code.  I do not have to worry about students coming across inappropriate material as there is a filter for students under sixth grade.  As students use different artwork within the application other students can get ideas and collaborate with each other all within the application.  All students’ creations are available inside the digital class allowing me to review and guide students with ease.  Visual learning tools in general provide students with a greater sense of involvement and overall engagement.  The general nature of creating visuals allows students to take pride in their work.  Furthermore, when combining visual media creation tools with web based applications students tend to put forth a more meaningful effort as they are aware their creations will be viewed by a large audience!  

Entering The Dark Side: Twitter Chats? LIS568

Well I have officially entered the “dark side” folks.  I have not only created a Twitter account, but I have also attended many Twitter chats!  I discussed Twitter in a broad sense in an earlier posting, however I wanted to give a more detailed look at the truly beneficial aspects of utilizing Twitter chats for professional development.  I have never had the urge to join Twitter, thus I just never did.  It could have been that I honestly felt it was completely useless to me personally and professionally.  However, through conversations with friends and colleagues I kept being introduced to many useful and beneficial functions of Twitter.  My biggest draws to Twitter were its, what seems like endless amount of, educational resources and the ability to essentially take part in professional development at a whim.  The following is a review of one of my first chats that I was a part of.

Some questions still existed though.  How can Twitter, a vast and diverse social media outlet, provide professional development for educators, and what kind of quality could it truly offer.  After I did some setting up and browsing, I was ready to put Twitter’s ability to provide professional development to the test.  Using a resource called Participate I was able to locate some Twitter chats.  Participate is a great website that provides its users with a very organized calendar with times that Twitter chats will be taking place.  Although, my first two attempts to join a chat were not successful, as nobody seemed to be active, by the third attempt I fortunately entered a lively and thriving discussion!  Organized by tweets (posts) being labeled with Q and A with their corresponding number (ex. Q1: or A2:), the Twitter chat was flowing basically like a normal conversation, but at a slower pace (typing instead of speaking) and with many active individuals (well over 10).  I was quite impressed with its simple yet effective organization.  A great feature was that there were two main users introducing/facilitating the new questions.  Questions were also tweeted earlier in the day, thus allowing individuals that planned to attend the chat to have the chance to review such thoughts.

Overall, the chat was very useful and extremely easy to be a part of.  I really enjoyed how Twitter limits the amount of characters one can use for each tweet.  I feel that such limitations truly provides users with more concise and to the point discussion.  Although, at times I did find myself having to look up some acronyms as users tried to limit their character usage.  With the slightly slower pace of conversation, I did not feel that this took away from my overall experience with the chat.  Where there were tons of useful content being shared, the overall acceptance that I felt into such a professional learning community (PLN) was quite impressive.  After all, this was my first time joining in on a community that seemed to have been meeting on the same day of the week (Wednesday) at the same time (8:00P.M. EST) consistently in the past.

I feel that the benefits educators can gain from taking part in Twitter chats certainly makes it a useful professional development tool.  Not only do users get exposed to relevant and rich information, but by using resources such as Participate users can pick and choose which chats they want to take part in.  Ultimately, allowing its users to easily be part of a diverse range of content areas.  I’m not sure how successful such professional development can be implemented at a district level, but on a personal level educators can surly reap in the benefits.  With such a networking opportunity being totally free, I feel it would be foolish to not take advantage of Twitter chats.  After all, isn't our main goal to provide our students with the best education that we possibly can?  Utilizing such an easy-to-use, yet extremely beneficial, tool seems like a very rational opportunity to take advantage of.

The Language of the Present and Future LIS568

Over the past months I have been exploring many different educational websites and apps with my students.  A website that I have found to be absolutely amazing in the classroom is Code.org.  This computer science website allows students to start to think like a software engineer, as users have the opportunity to code a vast amount of different applications.  I use this with my class during “morning work” time.  The time when students are settling into the building, signing up for lunches, listening to announcements, etc (I teach 4th grade).  Such time takes about 30 minutes each day, and I extend my morning work block an additional 20 minutes before we head to special.  This 50 minute block of time allows students to explore different applications, and if such applications seem sound I create an assignment that students work on for a couple of days before we move to the next website or app.  

With that said, Code.org offers so much for educators and the students.  More importantly, I have not come across anything that has cost money yet on the website!  The website is very vast, as it offers random game coding and modification to very structured courses with many lessons that build off of each other.  The resource even offers printable lesson plans that include lessons that are done offline as well (unplugged).  As an educator, you are able to create a virtual classroom in which you can assign specific lessons to your class.  Students can easily join your class by entering the login information on their end.  My students have access to one-to-one iPads, thus implementing such practices is very easy.  However, if you have computer labs or other means of digital devices that connect to the internet you can very easily implement such practices as well.  I really like the different hour of code courses built within the application, as they are structured lessons that build off of each other but not as long as the grade specific material.  Furthermore, the grade specific courses are great if you plan to utilize the application for an extended time as there is a culminating piece which students would love to reach and accomplish.  Both the hour of code and the grade specific material provides a very easy tracking method on each individual student’s progress if assigned through the virtual classroom function.  I really like how the website allows me to set up a classroom with each one of my students easily able to join.  I think it is important to note that the website runs very smoothly and works well on multiple platforms.

My students’ first experience with the website proved its benefits.  The first time I introduced the website I allowed students to do whatever they wanted on it.  All of them chose to explore the game coding and the modification of already completed games allowing students to customize games such as Flappy Bird.  When students customize or build a specific game, such as Flappy Bird, off of a provided foundation they are able to test the game.  Thus, whatever code students write in is how the game performs.  Every student was thoroughly engaged in their coding!  My plan is to now assign the grade level specific courses to my class.  Such courses provides students with explanation videos and coding lessons that build off of each other.  I can even take an easy grade for the grade book, making sure students stay on the course track and don’t get lost in only customizing and playing games.  The culminating piece to the course is actually the building of a small open world game!  Technology within our society is advancing more and more each day, thus having a resource such as Code.org allows students to engage in what will certainly be an imperative field as they enter their college and career endeavors.  As stated by Hayden (2016), “Computer science education enhances our children’s ability to think, engages them with hands-on teamwork and prepares them for a successful future. Who are we to deny them the language their future will rely on?”

Reference

Hayden, E. (2016). Coding for kids: The benefits of starting computer science education young. Rasmussen College. Retrieved from http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/technology/blog/coding-for-kids/.

iMovie vs. ABCya Animate LIS568

Mobile video creation apps, such as iMovie and ABCya Animate, offer much benefit to the classroom.  Such apps offer a great tool for students to use in the fabrication of material that can be used for assessments and overall creation purposes.  Not only does student work turn out great with the use of video creation apps, but students absolutely love creating material on such apps.  Integrating the use of iMovie, ABCya Animate, or any other video creation app can be as simple as just allowing students to use such an app in their next summative assessment.  I tend to be on the more guided inquiry and project basedlearning side of pedagogical approaches these days, thus utilizing such apps is very easy as students do a lot of presenting their findings.  Not only are video creation apps a good summative assessment, but they are also great formative assessments throughout the inquiry as well!  In the following I will discuss iMovie and ABCya Animate by providing and comparing general information and possible classroom uses of both.

iMovie was launched in October of 1999 and offers its users many functions, such as editing pre-made videos, using special effects, supported on multiple platforms, green screen capabilities, multiple track editing, and its user is able to export completed videos.  ABCya Animate, launched in August of 2013, lets students’ creativity run wild with up to 100 stop motion slides that be customize by drawing or using the embedded media.  The app also is supported on multiple platforms, uses in app media only, and its user is able to export finished videos as well.  iMovie allows iOS users on desktop, iPhone, and iPad platforms to produce high quality videos.  By importing media from external sources or using the automatically synced camera roll media, users are able to create highly customizable videos. iMovie can be confusing to users initially if they have had no training.  On the other hand, ABCya Animate is a very easy to use stop motion animation creator that is available to iPad users as well as Web users.  Users have the option to import background images, however users must use the available media embedded within the tool.  Users will not need prior knowledge on the tool’s function, as ABCya Animate presents a very simplistic approach.

In terms of classroom use iMovie allows students to create engaging presentations, as it also offers built in functions such as a movie trailer template.  The app provides allows students to be digital storytellers, and provides an out-of-school experience with imported media and/or green  features.  ABCya Animate allows students to retell and create stories, as well as demonstrate diverse understandings through stop motion creations.  The app can be accessed via the web and is free, as it also allows students to receive an out-of-school experience with importing background images.  Whereas iMovie is geared more towards upper elementary to upper secondary education, ABCya Animate is geared towards the primary grades.  Although, I can see older students benefiting and enjoying ABCya Animate as well.  Although iMovie poses a slightly greater challenge than ABCya Animate, the quality of iMovie’s final product and overall customizable functions makes it a valuable tool to use with students.

A Rational Approach: Using Twitter As Professional Development and Possible Classroom Implementation! LIS568

When I finally signed up for Twitter, after many friends were consistently encouraging me to, my initial response was that I can really see certain functions of Twitter providing me, as an educator, with quality professional development (PD).  After spending a little time with Twitter my initial response to its use in the educational world still holds true.  In fact, once my professional learning network (PLN) began to slightly grow I started valuing Twitter for more than its Twitter chats.  Where Twitter chats certainly provide an amazing opportunity for professional development, the overall functionality of Twitter when used only for professional aspects provides a diverse, vast, and organized educational resource.  A resource that allows educators and students to easily search for specific topics through the use of hashtags, ultimately allowing educators to partake in quality and convenient PD while students are introduced to a vast and quite organized resource.

Let me first start by saying that this is a truly unbiased discussion.  Meaning if I found no value in Twitter in terms of providing me, as an educator, with assistance to my day-to-day tasks I would not waste my time sharing positive thoughts of such technology.  With that said, the most useful function of Twitter to me, as of now, is its ability to provide me with quality conversations that fit into my schedule.  These conversations, referred to as Twitter chats, are conversations that truly provide me with meaningful and relevant professional development.  The best part of such PD is that it doesn't interrupt my daily schedule.  I can literally be laying in bed at the end of a long day gaining more engaging and beneficial PD than if I attended a workshop in the evening.  Don’t get me wrong, I have been involved with many workshops that I truly have found valuable to my professional career, but if I had to choose staying at work for another 3 hours, of course after waiting an hour or two after school for the workshop to start, or going home after a long day, I think it is obvious I would choose the latter.  Through using resources such as Participate or Education Chat Calendar, one can easily locate Twitter chats to partake in.  The most important and beneficial aspect of Twitter chats is that users can pick and choose exactly what conversations they want to be a part of.  Feeling like you need a little pick-me-up in regard to education technology search #ATchat, or search #elmused if you want to focus on elementary art.  If there are two chats you find intriguing that are scheduled for the same time on the same night, why not partake in them both at the same time?  The flexibility, diversity, and overall quality that educators can receive from twitter chats are what makes it such a valuable resource for educators. 

Although Twitter chats offer quite a lot in terms of PD, the overall PLN that Twitter provides educators with is truly a meaningful function.  By following other professionals, users are able to build a network with other educators that offer ideas, materials, resources…etc. which can be utilized with ease.  As Scavitto (2015) states discussing her Twitter usage, “The people in my PLN share amazing materials about all aspects of education.”  Not only are educators able to gain valuable resources, but the diversity of such material allows users to become exposed to new and innovative aspects.  More importantly, discussing such vastness of resources Scavitto (2015) states, “Articles like this would have been buried in the vastness of the web for eternity-but I get to read them because they appeared in my feed.”  With the utilization of hashtags users are able to have an organized system for storing and finding resources.  As Pitler (2015) suggests, “The secret to getting the most out of Twitter as an educator lies in knowing how to use hashtags (#)- those things we used to call the number signs last century.”  For example, if you are in need of a poster creator for students to use as a summative assessment tool but want to use a different tool than the typical Google Docs or Pages, a quick search using an appropriate hashtag such as #edtech can introduce you to the application Google Drawings.  Even more impressive is that if you are following the “correct micro-bloggers” in relation to a given interest, as Scavitto points out, information regarding Google Drawings could have just simply been present in your feed.  Thus, the importance of following the most beneficial micro-bloggers in regard to a given interest is extremely important.  As Scavitto (2015) states, “If you’re going to use Twitter for things beyond curating a collection of educational resources, I suggest having multiple accounts.”  Mixing interests outside of a professional focus will simply provide a user with additional content that can lead to an overall scattered and overloaded feed. Thus, defeating the purpose of using Twitter as professional development means.

Overall Twitter can provide educators and students with vast, diverse, and meaningful content.  Educators can advocate and implement for their students to utilize Twitter in very similar ways that they would.  However, being familiar with its functions and how to navigate the resource will help lead to a positive and beneficial experience for you and your students if you implement such features into your instruction.  Twitter chats offer an incredible opportunity for educators and students to partake in active and relevant discussions surrounding basically any topic of interest.  More importantly, through utilizing resources such as Participate and Education Chat Calendar, users have the ability to plan ahead as well as have the flexibility to attend Twitter chats through the comfort of their homes.  It is common for Twitter chat users to follow the other professionals that were part of the chat, ultimately allowing for a meaningful PLN to continually grow.  With the nurturing of a quality and relevant PLN, other professionals’ posts continually show on your home feed allowing easy access to resources, ideas, materials…etc.  With the understanding and the use of hashtags, students and overall users are able to be easily organized with such a vast amount of materials.  However, users must be mindful of only following other users that add to their repertoire of educational resources, ultimately creating a meaningful, relevant, and vast professional learning network.  As Pitler (2015) states, “Once you get started you just might become an evangelist.”  Of course, we can assume Pitler’s thoughts are to convert the non-Twitter users to simply Twitter users, not to turn such non-users into Christians!

References

Berger, R. (2015). Using twitter to supercharge your professional development. ConnectedEducators. Retrieved from http://www.connectededucators.org/using-twitter-to-supercharge-your-professional-development/.

Scavitto, D. (2015). Teachers: embrace twitter for professional development. Edudemic. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/teachers-embrace-twitter-professional-development/.

The Benefits of Podcasts Within Your Classroom LIS568

As an educator always looking for new and innovative ways to engage my learners with a quality education, using podcasts in the classroom poses as my newest discovery.  Until recent, I have never thought to search for student geared podcasts.  Honestly, it just has never crossed my mind.  To my surprise, there are actually some really well constructed podcasts that are created for the sole purpose of engaging kids in all sorts of educational means.  One podcast in particular that has proven to provide such quality content is Wow In The World from National Public Radio (NPR).  The podcast is “for curious kids and their grown-ups,” as stated on the Wow In The World website.  The podcast provides its user with not only audio episodes, but supplemental material for each episode as well.  This extra material consists of a summary of each episode, and additional questions that allows listeners to extend their understanding on the content covered in the episode.  If you are an educator, I’m sure the gears are turning on how you could implement such technologies in your classroom.  Let me help.

Where Did We Come From is the title of a specific episode created on August 31, 2017 by Wow In The World.  The episode covered content surrounding the history of Homo Sapiens (origins, migrations…etc.) and explanations of hurricanes.  The episode is one of the longer episodes at 30 minutes and 15 seconds, whereas the average length per episode is around 15 to 20 minutes.  Not only are my students provided with a very engaging and well constructed audio recording, but the supplemental material allows students to gain a deeper understanding through their creation of their own ancestor migration map.  Whereas the NPR created podcast only provides its users with a summary in the supplemental materials, some podcasts such as ThisAmericanLife provide its users with a full transcript of each episode.  However, if you embed episodes off of the NPR created podcast and paste the URL into an address bar you are able to access the transcript for each episode.  Thus, students can follow along while listening.

When considering implementing podcasts into your curriculum, it is important to focus on the length of such episodes you are providing your students.  No matter how engaging an episode is and depending on the grade level, from my experiences, students will most likely lose focus after a given amount of time.  I feel that Wow In The World’s episodes are a good length, as the average length per episode fits perfectly into a 40 minute academic period.  I plan to provide my students with a time slot at about 10 minutes into the episode, Where Did We Come From, where they will start, thus providing them with roughly a 20 minute episode.  From there, I plan to have students partake in a discussion thread surrounding the topics covered in the episode.  As a synthesizing task, students will use the supplemental resources available to create an ancestor migration map.  The wonderful aspect about using podcasts in your classroom is the diversity of content available.  Educators must put in the leg work of choosing episodes for specific content areas, depending on what content educators are looking to support.  Learners are able to meet the appropriate and obvious social studies and science (hurricanes) content standards, aspects of English Language Arts (ELA) Standards, and aspects from the standards associated with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).  Although, the benefits students can gain from simply listening to podcasts and discussing their finding, even if it doesn’t necessarily align in a multidisciplinary approach,  will still provide students with, at a minimum, ELA support.  As Mammina (2017) states, “In light of the Common Core State Standards’ shift toward the use of nonfiction, podcasts provide a unique way to build critical thinking skills while adhering to state standards.” With older grades, students can produce podcasts themselves with the intent to share their creations with younger grades.  By creating podcasts students can start the shift of being content creators rather than simply being content consumers. 

Happy teaching!

Reference

Mammina, A. 2017. Teaching the art of listening: how to use podcasts in the classroom. Education Week Teacher. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2017/09/teaching_the_art_of_listening_how_to_use_podcasts_in_the_classroom.html.

Customize With TED-Ed LIS568

In an attempt to add more digital and web based learning into my classroom I created a TED-Ed lesson.  If you are unaware of what TED-Ed has to offer you should certainly check it out.  It is a great free resource to use just for its video content alone.  However, if you want to customize your students’ experiences you can create your own lessons that include video content, comprehension questions, extended content, and discussion threads.  For example, a lesson I have created in the past is called Basic Geography, and the content provides students with exactly what the name suggests, a chance to support their understanding in basic Geography.  My specific purpose for the lesson creation was to support my current students with both review material as well as an introduction to new material.  TED-Ed is a great resource if you are attempting to flip your classroom, a librarian teaching information literacy, and overall any educator’s experience regarding educating our youth.  As an educator and coach, my time is valuable, thus the ease of high quality customized content that TED-Ed allows me to create is essential.

Within the lesson Basic Geography students are given a prompt that allows them to engage in a digital conversation with their peers.  Through their discussion they demonstrate their ability to interpret, organize, and ultimately share read material.  As an assessment, students construct an at least five sentence discussion post.  The discussion post allows students to convey their ideas on the information they received within the lesson.  When using TED-Ed in the classroom I make sure that the discussion portion of the lesson (Discuss section) is a significant aspect to what students are asked to complete.  In my TED-Ed lesson I synthesized the given information found within the Watch, Think, and Dig Deeper sections to lead to a meaningful discussion post.  Where I do find the Watch and Think section to be a beneficial aspect of the lesson, more importantly students get to explore relevant information in the Dig Deeper section allowing for a greater sense of understanding.  By tying the Discuss section to the previous sections, my students get to partake in a social media based/connected lesson.  I also ask my students to respond to at least two other peers’ responses, making the lesson that much more collaborative and social. 

What makes TED-Ed so valuable is that I am able to supply my students with direct instruction through the Watch and Think sections, then allow them to share and create their own content through the Dig Deeper and Discuss section.  The flexibility of the lessons allow me to assign students such lessons for home work or provide opportunity to review material outside of the classroom, knowing that students will receive the direct instruction needed to partake in the social aspect of learning.  I can also expand the Discuss section to have students share articles or other found information from the web.  Honestly, it provides me the proper organization to allow elementary students to begin to expand their learning experiences through digital and social means.  Furthermore, applications such as TED-Ed give students the ease of becoming content creators rather than simply content consumers.

Collecting and Saving Information: Diigo vs. Pinterest LIS568

Something I never truly spent time thinking about is the idea of gathering and storing information accessed on the internet, specifically the benefits of doing such collecting.  As we all know, the internet is such a vast tool.  The amount of information that society is sifting through on a daily basis is unfathomable.  Now, something to think about is whether or not you want to try to make your time (and your student’s time) efficient while “surfing,” or you are fine continuing your mindless browsing.  I personally have found it very beneficial to start organizing quality information, that information that is helpful to my profession.  Don't get me wrong, I still have mindless “surfing” moments.  Although, they tend to be less and less these days.  My point is that I have had countless times that I needed some idea for a project, resources for my students, resources for myself, etc. in which I turn to the internet for assistance.  There has been many times that I have had to go back through my search history to try and find a certain website that I discovered a few days ago.  The wonderful thing about such a vast resource as the internet is that it provides us with exceptional tools that can help with such organizing.  The power that these tools can provide not only yourself but your students as well is immense.  I present to you Diigo vs. Pinterest.

Let me first start by saying Pinterest is mainly image centered, whereas Diigo focuses around the actual website as a whole.  There are certain aspects when you begin to use information organizing tools, such as Diigo and Pinterest, that you start to appreciate more than the others.  Tagging, being one of those aspects, allows a user to attach keywords to saved material.  Thus, the ability to find certain information in the future becomes much quicker and easier.  Diigo and Pinterest both incorporate tagging into their application.  However, Diigo allows its users to attach tags to saved material, whereas Pinterest only allows its users to search for new material using tags.  Although, I suppose creating boards in Pinterest and putting certain information on relevant boards can be considered tagging.  With Diigo the home screen of your account allows you to view your saved material.  It gives you the option to search through your material by typing keywords or choosing tags that you have created.  Pinterest opens you up to a home page that has all different resources depending on the interests you choose to be informed about, not your saved material!  With Diigo you can access suggested material through a “discover” option.  Where Diigo allows its users to copy and paste content into descriptions of saved websites, Pinterest only allows you to add a description to the boards you create.

Living in a socially connected world, having the ability to essentially “socialize” on applications is important for users.  Both Diigo and Pinterest allow you to follow other users and be followed by other users on the same application.  Pinterest allows its users to send messages, easily search for people by name and by content, and comment on both saved (pinned) and unsaved material.  Diigo allows its users to simply comment on individuals’ posts that are in the same group as them.  You have to first create a group to search, invite, and slightly interact with others while using Diigo.  Both Pinterest and Diigo do an excellent job with being able save content found on others’ boards (Pinterest) or libraries (Diigo).  However, Diigo only allows such functions with others’ content when following those users, whereas Pinterest allows such functions with whoever.  With that said, creating a class group on Diigo allowing students to add resources throughout the year can act as a valuable resource for students to use during the year and possibly their future years as well.

Pinterest certainly excels in the social aspect of the application, however Diigo seems to trump its counterpart in the more professional aspects, you know those functions that make your job easier.  Diigo allows its users to highlight, comment on highlighted text, and overall annotate any content saved to the application.  Sadly, Pinterest does not allow for any such functions.  The closest function Pinterest has in its annotating abilities is providing its users with the privilege to comment under an image.  Both applications allow for a browser extension.  The extensions for both applications certainly provide a better overall experience for its user, as they simply make the purpose of both applications easier to accomplish.  However, I feel for professional aspects Diigo’s extension blows Pinterest’s out of the water!  Using Diigo’s extension on my toolbar allows me to save websites to my Diigo library, annotate the article as is, annotate any PDF I drag into my browser, annotate the screenshot of the website I'm on, and more.  Pinterest’s browser extension, on the other hand, only allows me to bring up all the images found on the website I am currently visiting.

Although both applications are used for similar purposes, they are actually quite different.  Overall, they both store and organize information found on the internet, but depending on what type of individual you are will determine which application you will enjoy more.  If you are an individual who gets easily distracted by images, you will find Pinterest more of a distraction than useful.  However, if you need more visuals to help with your organization Diigo certainly will not do the trick with its wordy ways.  For me, it comes down to functionality for my personality type.  Pinterest simply distracts me, it is difficult for me to visualize its organizing ways, and overall too socially driven.  Diigo provides me with what some might consider an archaic organizing method, but that archaic organizing method is extremely efficient with its new age tags!  Not only that, but the functionality of the browser extension is super useful for my profession as an educator.  I can easily highlight areas of text and make comments directly on web sources, as well as annotate any pdf or screen shot.  For the assistance Diigo provides me in the classroom, I would be silly not to use this on a daily basis.  Furthermore, I feel that Diigo provides my students with a resource that exemplifies the power of connectivity through a less distracting and overall more beneficial way.  From organizing to functionalities, Diigo trumps Pinterest.

Wait, What Am I Creating With My Pen Pal? LIS568

Being an educator in such a connected world poses many opportunities to connect our classrooms with different cultures around the world.  One great resource that allows for such a connection is ePals.  Free to sign up it seems like a no brainer to join.  It’s not everyday you come across a resource which its sole purpose is to connect your classroom with another classroom anywhere you please in this world.  Whereas there are other pen pal resources, ePals takes a fantastic approach with allowing for more than just communication.  With ePals not only can you have a pen pal exchange, but you can also have your students partake in an “experience” as well.  While ePals offers a safe and secure network for students to interact on, it also provides educators with an organized location to ask questions, share tips and advice, and overall be part of an unique networking experience.

A specific function of ePals that I find most intriguing is its “experience” opportunities.  Students are able to work through inquiries with other students from all over the world.  Honestly, how cool is that?  I remember doing pen pals in elementary school and I can tell you that their was no collaboration in terms of solving an inquiry based project, and it was certainly not via the World Wide Web!  Talk about basically an instant response.  No more waiting for days as the USPS does their job.  There are many pre-made projects through ePals, however if you deem necessary you have the function to create your own projects from scratch.  The pre-constructed projects are very well thought out, organized, and offer a diverse range of subjects.  Students can partake in a language based project such as folktale exchange, in which students explore and compare folktales with partner classes from all parts of the world and actually create their own storytelling traditions.  Students can be part of a science lesson where they explore how scientist study animal traits to create robots, ultimately creating their own robots to achieve a certain goal in their partner class’s environment.  Not only are students gaining cultural understandings, but they are also gaining a significant level of digital competence.

When you think about the level of digital literacy and responsibility that students must gain and obtain in order to achieve success in their globally connected inquiries it is quite impressive.  Personally, teaching my students every year to achieve a sense of digital literacy is paramount, and being a social studies teacher it is critical for me to educate my students with a sense of cultural diversity.  For me, having my students partake in projects through ePals allows me to “kill at least two birds with one stone.”  On top of being able to provide my students with such an unique experience, I am able to network with other teachers from all around the world.  As professor Ronald Burt states, “ Instead of better glasses, your network gives you better eyes.”

Happy teaching!

To Blog or Not To Blog LIS 568

Being part of the 21st century and living in this always evolving technology generation is a pretty awesome thing!  I feel as if I could honestly learn something new everyday of my life off of the internet.  As teachers, having the World Wide Web is such a valuable aspect to education, especially when utilized effectively in the classroom.  Being in a district that provides students with 1:1 iPads, I absolutely take advantage of the benefits digital devices with network connection provide my classroom.  It certainly takes work on my end to stay up to date, and do my best to learn new practices as technology continues to develop and grow.  However, the benefits are well worth it.  

After some research on the possibilities and benefits of blogging, I truly would like to incorporate blogging into my curriculum.  Where there are many ways one could use blogging, both for personal development and classroom practices, having students construct and post short book reviews fits into my curriculum perfectly!  I teach at the elementary/middle school level, thus I encourage reading throughout each year by tracking our overall classroom progress with a tracking chart.  It’s actually a cool tracking chart that I made in undergraduate work many years ago of a mountain and a little hiker dude that treks up the mountain as students complete books.  Students can earn parties when reaching camp 1, 2, and the summit.  Anyways, I have students complete a short book review worksheet that I check and give credit for completion.  By having students simply blog their book reviews, not only would the book review be easier for me to look at, but other students could read the reviews as well.  Thus, helping my classroom become that much more student centered.

Throughout the school year, I always try to incorporate current event work.  I like to add in speaking and presentation skills with the current event work as well.  I provide students with an organization template that allows for them to summarize their articles they read.  Once their research is complete, students present their article and their thoughts to the class.  In future years, instead of just having students present their finding to the class I want to introduce blogging their thoughts and summaries of the current event articles as well.  Students can then present to the class using their blog on the overhead, or students could check out other students’ blogs and comment on their posts…etc.  It should be interesting to see the growth of students’ posts from the beginning of the year to the end.  

Whether you are a classroom teacher, library media specialist, or any other special area educator incorporating blogging into your curriculum can be a great way to work on English language arts skills, technology skills, and collaboration skills.  More importantly, students are learning to become content creators rather than simply consumers. As stated by Broad (2015), “Engaging students in activities that align closely to higher-order thinking skills like creating, evaluating and synthesizing certainly seems more transformative than asking them to search for information on the internet.”  Being content creators rather than passive consumers allows our students to truly engage in a relevant and rigorous task, ultimately allowing them to gain experience in 21st century skills.  Such 21st century skills can be very important for their college and career success.  Some free resources to start such blogging adventures are as follows: Blogger, WordPress, and Weebly.

Get out there and start blogging, or don't, totally up to you, but I definitely am!

References

Broad, S. (2015). Creators, not consumers. Education Technology. Retrieved from http://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/creators-not-consumers.

Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives, and Digital Enjoyers

As technology continues to grow in usage within society, the eduction field is drastically being impacted by the affects of such usage.  As suggested by Prensky (2001) in an article titled Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1, instant messaging, cell phones, e-mail, computer games, and the internet in general are examples of such technologies that surround society’s everyday life (p. 2).  The results of this ever so connected world is believed to be changing the type of students, we as educators, are interacting with on a daily basis.  Pensky (2001) introduces the idea that the type of student that is currently present in the classroom is much different than the teacher that is educating them.  He discusses the idea that current students can identify themselves as digital natives, whereas the teachers can identify themselves as digital immigrants (p. 3).  A digital native being an individual born into a society with such technology, as mentioned earlier, present, and a digital immigrant as an individual that was not born into such a society but became fascinated and learned how to use such technologies.

In a video titled Do “Digital Natives” Exist? by PBS Idea Channel, it is suggested that digital natives are those born after 1980.  However, I was born in 1989, nine years later than suggested in the video, and I can not consider myself a digital native.  I feel I would fall more into the digital immigrant category.  Possibly, somewhere in the middle?  Although I did have internet, it was dial-up, which meant I could only use it for certain amounts of time before being yelled at to get off, thus the phone lines in the house could be used again.  Email, on the other hand, was used, but AOL instant messenger was much more popular.  Cell phones were nonexistent until I reached about 8th grade, and I believe at that point it was a pre-paid Firefly!  Although, soon after the flip phone became popular with wireless carrier plans.  Computer games begin in my memory as the floppy disc Oregon Trail in elementary school with slow massive desktops.  I suppose I do meet the majority of criteria to be considered a digital native, however the advancements within such technology certainly happened over a short period of time during the 1990’s.  I feel that the digital native born date should be moved more to around 1995 rather than 1980. 

Although I associate myself more as a digital immigrant rather than a digital native, I don’t ever experience any frustration with new and innovative technologies.  In fact, I enjoy diving head first into new technologies.  However, at times I am definitely a little stubborn when it comes to jumping on band wagons.  For example, it took me until this year, 2017, to join the Twitter and Pinterest crews and I still do not have an Instagram.  I do enjoy photos though, thus I’m not quite sure why I haven't joined Instagram yet.  Hence the stubbornness.  Even though I feel very comfortable with using and figuring out new technologies, I don’t necessarily agree with the way that the majority of society uses such technologies.  We are becoming a society that is connected more so than ever before and only views such technologies as entertainment.  I see it on a daily basis in my classroom.  I consider my 4th grade students, who were born in 2007 and 2008, digital natives.  Thus, to incorporate my generation, being born in the late 1980s and early 1990’s, in the same digital native category as my 4th grade students seems a little irrational.  I feel that we might need to revise the understanding surrounding digital natives and digital immigrants.  Maybe adding a category that lies in-between digital immigrants and digital natives would be something to consider.  Or, adding a group after digital natives that covers individuals born after 1995 called digital enjoyers (Logan, 2017)?

References

Logan, M. (2017). Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives, and Digital Enjoyers. Blogger. Retrieved from http://infinitebrainwork.blogspot.com/.

Marc Prensky, (2001) "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1", On the Horizon, Vol. 9 Issue: 5, pp.1-6, https:// doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816.

PBS Idea Channel. (2013). Do digital natives exist?. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVKBAqjHiE.

Make The Flip!?

Being part of the education system during times of such connectivity allows educators to collaborate and develop in ways that were not possible before the 21st century.  Educators can now connect via the web and share classroom ideas, materials, theories…etc. through what seems like an endless amount of platforms.  With such resources comes new pedagogical approaches.  As internet has seen its way into the majority of society’s homes, the educator’s practices are now not as restricted.  A pedagogical approach that has been born from less restrictions is that known as the flipped classroom.  The flipped classroom is continuing to grow within the education field, as many educators are beginning to adopt and implement such techniques.  Over the past few years, not only have some colleagues made the flip, but more and more interest is being generated by the new and innovative approach.

The flipped classroom is an instructional strategy that limits the teacher’s direct instruction approaches.  Instead of students receiving direct instruction from their classroom teacher, they receive it from assigned work outside of school.  Thus, class time becomes much more student centered.  As stated by Graney (2013), “What happens in the flipped classroom revolves around the learners’ needs.”  Being an educator in New York and having to meet our annual professional performance review (APPR) needs, in order to truly be a highly successful teacher our classroom must be extremely student centered (based on New York's requisites).  Scoring highly effective is a “piece of cake” when utilizing such a student centered approach as the flipped classroom.  With students partaking in the direct instruction aspect of topics at home, during class time teachers are able to spend time helping students that might be struggling, clarifying to a group a certain aspect that is troubling them, or working with an individual one on one.  Not only do more students get their needs met in the classroom, they also are able to work at their own pace outside of the classroom as well.  Graney (2013) states, “By moving instruction outside of class, learners gain control over their learning. Learners who get lost in class as the teacher explains more quickly than they can process can now stop the video and review.”  

Although not the only technique, utilizing videos as the instructional aids for assigned tasks at home has become a very popular practice with the flipped classroom.  Thus, being familiar with resources to find and tailor such media is very beneficial to the overall success with the flipped classroom.  Educators should not only limit themselves to using already made videos, as creating such videos can prove to be a useful process as well.  To find pre-made videos TedEd, YouTube, ShowMe, Khan Academy…etc. are all great tools to get started.  To create videos, educators might think about utilizing a screen casting applications such as Sceencast-O-Matic, or the screen recording function that is now available with the iOS 11 update.  Windows Movie Maker and iMovie are great starting points for movie editing tools as well.  With that said, implementing the flipped classroom into your everyday practices can truly give you an opportunity to meet all of your learners’ needs.

Not only can flipping the classroom provide a more effective learning opportunity for the general education student, but such approaches have also been understood to increase English language learners’ (ELLs), struggling students’, and advanced students’ content comprehension as well.  As Marshall (2013) states, “For ELs, it is equally about the videos and the in-class portion because the videos provide comprehensible input that students might otherwise not be able to access.”  Those students who are struggling are able to not only take their appropriate pacing at home, but during in-class sessions students are able to clarify content that has posed difficult to them with their educator.  Graney (2013), discussing this understanding of in-class time states, “The activities may elicit the misunderstandings, they may take the students deeper into the subject, and they should provide students with opportunities to learn or relearn the elements of the lessons that they find difficult.”  An approach that I find intriguing is that advanced learners can help with the creation of instructional videos.  Why not allow those students who need more of a challenge help in the creation of course material?  You not only provide such students with a deeper learning experience, but you also lessen your work load!

With the flipped learning approach comes more, or as I like to look at it different, work.  Not only do educators have to plan in different ways, but students quickly realize that they too have to approach their studies slightly different.  As Graney (2013) states, “The students used to ‘playing school’ successfully may find the approach frustrating as it makes demands beyond simply having the correct answer.”  This understanding makes absolute rational sense, as most likely the only education students have received before entering a flipped classroom involved more traditional approaches.  Lets face it, traditional approaches are less focused around deep learning and more geared towards memorization, as students very seldom truly remember much from previous years.  Just the other day I began a social studies unit, and what I thought would be review for Geography content ended up being the focus of my planning for the entire rest of the week.  Flipping the classroom puts more accountability on the students as well, as they are responsible for their studies outside of the classroom.  It is very easy to tell whether a student is being responsible outside of the classroom, in terms of academics, because their contributions, questions, and overall content understandings will show during in-class sessions.  Providing students with the opportunity to grow in accountability, responsibility, and overall academic success will certainly benefit students in their college and career endeavors.  As an educator thinking about flipping your classroom, I recommend a slow transition.  Get to know and become comfortable with the technology you will be using.  Take your current direct instruction lessons and begin to make resources your students can utilize outside of the classroom.  Join professional learning networks such as the Flipped Learning Global Initiative.  Overall, enjoy teaching in such an awesome and connected epoch of society!

References

Graney, J. (2013). Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer. TESOL Connections. Retrieved from http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolc/issues/2013-10-01/3.html.

Marshall, H. (2013). Three Reasons To Flip Your Classroom. TESOL International Association. Retrieved from http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolbeis/issues/2013-08-28/6.html.