Class on Creating Wikis

What another awesome Web 2.0 class! In a three-hour period, we learned how to create our on wikispace by actually creating one for our class use. The directions were easy to follow, and it's cool how all of these google tools fit together under one gmail account. I used to hear people talk about the benefits of a gmail account, but I never understood that blogger, wikispace, IGoogle, and IReader all came under one major account. I am really excited to use my wikispace for all of my classes. I hope to post powerpoint projects on our upcoming unit on the Harlem Renaissance and the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. My hope is that the students will do research on important musicians, writers, artists, political figures, etc., from the Harlem Renaissance and create powerpoints to post on our class wiki so that all students can view the information on their own time as needed. Also, I hope to have students find some helpful videos on Teachertube.com and embed them on our class wiki. Finally, I then plan to have students set up blogger accounts to write and share family stories and recent experiences that relate to the novel. The wiki will be open to students who will add their creative ideas about a creative time in recent history.

How I Plan to Use Blogging and RSS Feeds in Class

In our first Web 2.0 class, we set up blog sites and RSS feed lists on our new IGoogle Reader account. Although I have used with my classes before, I was still a bit rusty. If you don't use these tools regularly, you forget the little idiosyncrasies of each tool. By reviewing the blog site set-up and uses, I am re-invigorated to start a new blog site with my students as we prepare to read a novel over the next month. The novel blog site will be a great avenue for students to share family connections and personal reading journals as they read either Cold Sassy Tree (Academics) or Their Eyes Were Watching God (Honors). In both novels, the theme of the importance of the extended family provides excellent discussion questions for blogs about students' family ties and traditions. I hope to set up a blog assignment similar to our Web 2.0 class assignment in which students are required to post two new blogs a week and then respond to at least two other blogs on specific topics. I just need to come up with an easier way to manage the grading of all of those student blog posts. Any ideas?

As for the RSS feed subscription list, I am finding it useful to get the updates on my Google reading page. Wow, some sites update a lot (i.e. "Teaching Paperless"). The amount of information out on the web is daunting. I hope that I can keep up, without getting totally distracted. Now, I sound like one of my students.

First Class on Blogs and RSS Feeds

What a fantastic class! I learned so much in the first three hours, and I can't wait to start a blog project in my English class with the upcoming novel unit. I have used blogs in the past as a way for students to share their family journals, but I still have a lot to learn and I look forward to trying a new one in the next few weeks. Also, I am excited to personalize my igoogle page for English 9. What a cool tool! By actually doing the assignments in class, we understand how to use the digital tools that we are about to ask our students to use in class. I look forward to the next class, and I can't believe how many useful tools I have learned in the first night.

Video Reflection

After watching the six videos on the digital world and how it impacts educators and students, I wrote a lengthy reflection that just won't fit in this blog space. Paul asked the class if any of the videos was scary to us. I can't say that the videos scared me, but I will say that I was more alarmed and stressed to know that technology is changing and growing in such exponential numbers and we as educators need to forge our path on the journey with the students. I actually visualize a vortex when I think of the relationship between today's students and education. I wrote so much that I will have to share my formal reflection at a later date and summarize as best I can. The two movies that I found most interesting were A Vision of Students Today and Digital Students and Analog Schools. Both videos had a similar message that educational environments needs to use the digital tools that students are using in their everyday lives to help students learn, because the students know how to put these great tools to work for their best learning. Also, we need to prepare students for college and jobs that might not even exist at the moment. Time will tell.

First Post for Web 2.0

I took this course for a few reasons. First of all, I too am fulfilling my certification requirement for renewing my teaching certificate in the next year. More importantly though, I work at The John Carroll School, where 9, 10, and 11 grade students carry a personal laptop throughout the day in school. All teachers and students have wireless internet and printing capabilities, so there is great pressure to use the tablets to the students' greatest advantage. I have been piloting the program for three years now, and I have used blogging and wikis for writing and discussion in English classes; however, I have so much more to learn. I look forward to enhancing what I "sort of know" and have learned by the seat of my pants. From what I have seen so far, Web 2.0 will be a great course to improve my use of digital tools in the classroom.