Christen Kauffman

BP15_2009103_ResponceToTrisha

2009-10-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

Trisha said: "Story Something is a mobile and web platform for personalized and customized children's stories providing busy, time deprived parents with impressionable, relevant, and enjoyable ways to connect with their children through storytelling. If I were an elementary school teacher I would encourage all of my parents to sign up for this tool. Not only would it provide active involvemnt in their childs learning, but it will reinforce the reading strategies that are taught in my class. Again I have to reflect back on my National Board experiance and say that this tool is exactly what the board is looking for when envolving the parents and or the community of parents with what you are doing as an individual in the classroom creating a learning team that reinforces eachother in and outside of the classroom."

Trisha, I am really glad that you were able to find out more about this site. Last week I tried to look in to it and all it would allow me to do was send them my e-mail. I never did get any information about it though. I personally believe that parent involvement, especially at a young age is imperative in a child's life. You said it perfect what you mentioned time deprived parents needing fun ways to connect to their kids. I am not a mom yet, but with as busy as my schedule is now, I can understand how parents with children struggle to find time to search out good information for their children. It is great to know that someone out there is lending parents a hand, and suppling them with an easy was to connect with their children. I can't wait to learn more about this site for myself!

BP14_2009103_Web2.0_TadaList

2009-10-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

The last tool that I chose to write about this week doesn’t really have any educational value, it is just one of those things that makes a teachers busy, busy lives a little easier. Tadalist.com is a very simple website with a very simple tool that generates lists for both interactive computer usage, or simply to print out as a handout. This site is nothing fancy, but I know I will be using it from now. Registration to the site is free and takes less than a minute. Once you register and log in you can begin making lists and saving them to the website. Once your list is complete you have a few options to choose from. The first thing you can choose to do is print the list just as it is. If you would prefer to have it saved somewhere other than on the site you can have it emailed to yourself. Or you can allow the site to save it and access it through logging in. If you decide on the last option, tadalist.com will categorize you things in to things that are done, and things that are not done. To change from what list or another simply check that an item on your list has been completed. This is a great tool for teachers and students. Teachers can generate lists for themselves or for students to keep for assignments. I would love to use this with students in an electronic form for assignments. I think it would be great if each student could have his or her own account. Each account would have a list of assignments for a grading period. Once a student has submitted their assignment they can log on and click that it has been completed, much like we do on FSO. I think this would be a great way to help students and teachers stay organized.

My Lists. (2009). Retrieved on October 18, 2009 from http://tadalist.com.

BP13_2009103_ReflectiveMedia2

2009-10-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Nutcracker Suite. (2009). Creative commons music. Retrieved on October 18, 2009 from http://search.creativecommons.org/.

Pictures courtesy of Morgue File and Loggel.

Loggel. (2009). Retrieved on October 18, 2009 from http://loggel.com.

Morgue File. (2009). Retrieved on October 18, 2009 from http://morguefile.com.

BP12_2009103_Web2.0_Loggel

2009-10-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

When I found the site Loggel, my mind started racing at the amazing class activity opportunities that this website offers. Loggel takes blogging and journaling to the next level. The website is free to join, and is actually built to be a travel log type of journal. The first thing I imagined doing with this website is a class website, journaling classroom adventures. This would be a great way to chart and journal a specific unit. For example, say your class is studying a unit called “Christmas Around the World.” To begin the project, each student would be assigned a different country. Then they would be responsible for researching the holiday traditions of that country. Within that research that would need to find 20 photographs or pictures that they could site and use on their portion of the website. After completing their website, each member of the class would be responsible for drafting a minimum of three entries for the Loggel site. Each class, students could take turns writing and uploading their information to the website. They would be required to use the pictures they found in the entries. Each Loggel entry has the ability to contain a picture slideshow to accompany the text. Because the site is intended to be used a travel log, it has a great additional feature that could be used in a project of this nature. For each entry you have the option of including a geotag option. A geotag allows you to take on a map the location that your entry is referring to. Once each student has completed their section, you could take it a step further and have students explore the website comparing cultures and holiday traditions. This is a great way to involve parents as well, since the website is accessible anytime, anywhere!

Loggel. (2009). Retrieved on October 18, 2009 from http://www.loggel.com.

BP11_2009103_Web2.0_SlideBoom

2009-10-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

The first web 2.0 tool that I found this week is called SlideBoom. This site has the potential to be a great tool to use in the classroom if you just use a little creativity. While the website seems to be directed a business professionals, I do believe that this site can be used in the education world as well. The site allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations to the web and share them with people around the world. There are a few options you can follow when using this site. You can upload a PowerPoint with no registration. However, your ability to modify or personalize your upload is limited. You can still decide who can view, download and embed your document. But the biggest limitation is that the presentation will only be available on the site for a week once it is uploaded. To leave your presentation on the site permanently and be able to make alterations to it, you can register for a reasonable fee. This could be a great site for increasing parent involvement in the classroom. Students can make PowerPoint presentations and upload them to the website and which allows parents to see what their students are studying and the quality of their work. Another great way to use the site would be to do a class submission. If you have an assignment where all of your students are submitting PowerPoint’s, you can require that they all submit their presentation to the site. This would allow you to manage the format in which you are receiving all their work. This site is not something that is very involved or that your students are going to be jumping to use. But this site is a great tool for teachers to share and manage student’s work.

SlideBoom. (2009). Retrieved on October 17, 2009 at http://www.slideboom.com/presentations.

BP10_2009103_ReflectiveMedia

2009-10-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

All videos and pictures courtesy of Kideos Videos For Kids

Kideos. (2009). Retrieved on October 14, 2009 from http://www.kideos.com/.

BP9_2009103_FlickrLesson

2009-10-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Many of the lesson plans that I found on the Internet using Flickr were centered on using words and pictures. Before I began researching, I had an idea in my head of how I would use Flickr in the classroom. The results of my search supported my general idea. We all can remember the same old vocabulary lessons. The teacher would say, “write the word five times, then write a sentence using the word.” And that homework would be assigned every week with a new set of words. I believe that using Flickr in association with vocabulary would be a great new twist, on a classic, but important, subject. There are a couple of different ways I could see incorporating Flickr in to a vocabulary lesson. The first way may only work if you have the availability of cameras. You could allow them to go around the school and find things to take pictures of, or take pictures of each other putting their vocabulary words in to action. You could include bonus points if students can find ways to “tag” pictures accurately with more than one vocabulary word. If you do not have cameras available, an alternate method would be to allow students search for pictures on the Internet that show examples of the vocabulary word. The catch to this method would be that students would not be allowed to use the actual vocabulary word in the search engine. By not allowing students to use the vocabulary word to search, it forces them to make sure they have a good understanding of what the word means. If they can’t find the right words to search, then they will not be able to find a picture to tag with the vocabulary word. By allowing the students to find pictures and additional words to associate with their vocabulary word, it will allow them to demonstrate understanding of the vocabulary word, without being forced in to the same old routine of sentence writing.

BP8_2009102_Web 2.0 Tools - Reponce

2009-10-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

Origonal Post Done By, Jaime Ferguson

http://jaimeferguson.blogspot.com/

Web 2.0 Tool 1: Glogster

http://edu.glogster.com “Glogster EDU was conceived to imaginatively, productively, and collaboratively respond to the dynamic educational landscape and exceed the needs of today’s educators and learners” (“A New World of Educational Innovation Awaits You”, n.d.).

Glogster is a way to create multimedia virtual posters, scrapbooks, or e-portfolio pages. During my school years I can remember how many projects or presentations I had to create a poster for a visual. I’m sure you can remember cutting up magazines, coloring in words, and making diagrams. In today’s world students are more digital natives and have more computers available. Imagine if posters were a good medium 10 years ago, glogs are today’s answer for the new generation.

Glogster is a free, web-based tool that you can create any type of poster you can think of including adding videos. Registration is quick and easy only basic information like a user name, password, email address, and your birthday are needed. Once you’ve received a confirmation email form Glogster, you can create a profile. Creating a glog is easy and a lot of fun. The website provides a large amount of backgrounds, graphics, and text options. The graphics can be found in a range of styles and colors, sizes and orientation can be changed. They even offer animated graphics that flash or move to add that extra element to the collage. Images can be uploaded from your computer files as a background or just as a part. Glogster adds that digital advantage by allowing sound, videos and hyperlinks to be included. Lastly just click to save and publish.

This site if more than just creating terrific virtual posters, you can use it as a social network. From your dashboard you can see messages, your friends, add your current status, and see your glogs. You can share your glogs, or keep them private. Users can comment, rate, add it to your favorites, or send to your friends through email. Glogster is a creative social website that allows for creative freedom and collaboration. One of the big bonuses to this site is that you can share your glog outside of their website. You can copy the code to post it on other sites like wikis and blogs, or you can click the easy share button to add it to several other social networking sites.

Jaime, this sounds like a great tool. When you said, "In today’s world students are more digital natives and have more computers available. Imagine if posters were a good medium 10 years ago, glogs are today’s answer for the new generation," I couldn't agree more. Sometimes I think it can be easy for teachers to assign things like "make a poster, or make a diorama" because that's what they were asked to do as students. But our students today have so many more tools at their finger tips, and we should allow them use those tools. I think Glogster is a great way to let those creative juices flow. I don't know how many people have the ability to print something like this in poster size, but I bet you could even use it as a planning tool. Have them use Glogster to make a scaled model of a poster or design and then have them use their hands to make it. I think that sounds like a good way of joining more traditional ideas with new technologies. This could also be great if you have a school website, students could make art for it. Thanks for sharing this tool, it is definitely worth exploring with my students.

BP7_2009102Web 2.0 Tools - Factbook

2009-10-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

Factbook is still in its Beta stage, and that fact is a bit evident. There are some errors with the system having to catch up to your search and what not, but overall, I think this site could be very helpful when studying geography and world history. The site is very user friendly. When you visit the site, there is automatically a window that pops up to tell you about the website and give you examples of the things you can do. The site offers searches that you should try before beginning your own search, just to get the feel of things. I think that is a great addition and it would be helpful to have teachers do those example searches with their students first. This would be a great site to have students explore on their own and develop questions for themselves. For example, you could have everyone focus on the African continent. Then ask all the students to develop one question. So one student would say "which African country has the largest population?" Another might say, "which African countries mine gold as a natural resource?" You can then compile all the questions in to a work sheet and allow the students to explore the site to find the answers. The site breaks down the countries by tons of different criteria, to name a few, religion, natural resources, language, dialect and population. I think as the site is further developed it will become even more useful. Additional facts and information will be brought online to help. I think it would be great if they could start incorporating pictures and movies that support their facts. But this site is absolutely something that I would use in the classroom when studying all areas of the world.

BP6_2009102_Web 2.0 Tools - Babel With Me

2009-10-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

Babel With Me is a website that I found when looking for communications tools. As a child and younger student, I had the opportunity to have multiple pen-pals from around the world. I can remember those experiences fondly. I was excited to check my e-mail and see what my far away friend had to tell me this time. As we rely more and more on technology for our communication, what we have to say seems to become less and less. Instead of a heartfelt birthday greeting we send a text saying happy b-day, or instead of a thoughtful reply we send u2. What has happened to actual conversations? When did polite small talk become unheard of? Babel With Me is trying to open those lines of communication again, and this time on a global level. The site is very simple. There is no sign up or registration, you simply go to the site and begin your chat. As you type, the site automatically translates your conversation in to the language of the recipient. This means that I, a country girl from Florida, USA, could carry on a conversation with a teacher in Hong Kong, China. I think this site has amazing potential for connecting students. I don't know if I would allow my students on the site as it is right now, because there are no guidelines or separate rooms for students to chat it. However, I think the idea behind Babel With Me is genius. If it could be set up so that students could log-in to a secure area and discuss things with other students around the world, imagine the things that could happen. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that my 6th graders could discuss with other 6th graders in Germany weather patterns and how they differ in each other's climates. As I said, I don't think this site is something that I can implement right away, but it is absolutely something that I am going to keep my eye on and see how this site develops.

BP5_2009102_Web 2.0 Tools - Kideos

2009-10-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

The above graphic is the logo for Kideos, videos for kids. This site is a great resource for teachers. I would say that the site is primarily geared for younger children, but if you search for the right content could be beneficial to students of all ages. This site was developed by parents for their own children and is maintained by a Video Advisory Council. No video is posted and placed on the site without approval from the council which consists of both parents and educators. The safety of this site is a great feature, but there are so many other things that make this site a vital tool in the classroom. The site's content is cross-referenced in so many ways. Each video is tagged with different words like, "experiment, science, soda." The video is also labeled for which age ranges it is appropriate, for example 7-8 and 9+. You can also browse my popular names such as Baby Einstein, Disney and Animals. After viewing a movie the site provides you with a list of "Related Videos," that match your search and the video you selected. This is a great place to not only find materials that you can use in your classroom, but ideas for science labs and activities in the classroom. I was concerned when I first logged on to the site that it might just all be clips from movies and things that would not be educationally beneficial. So I decided to search science in the search bar. I was immediately given a ton of videos to look at about what science is and examples of different science experiments. I can not wait to go back and really explore this site with my students. I think it would be great to show them some experiments and have them vote on which ones they would actually like to try in the classroom. The site is set-up very much like Youtube, in fact many of the videos are streamed from Youtube, but with the additional security of the advisory council which insures no inappropriate material is on the site and makes it safe for the classroom.

BP4_2009102_SocialBookmarking

2009-10-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

We have all been in that crunch where we are coming down to a deadline for a paper. The sources have been researched, the content is coming together and the clock is running down. We are looking to put the final citations in and wrap it up, the only problem is you can’t find that one website. You search through your history and bookmarks, but goodness knows you have saved 50 sites over the last week writing your paper. So you start “Googleing” again, trying to remember what was the search that got you to that site. Well those days of frantic searches for long lost websites are over thanks to social bookmarking and the affect that it is having on the education world. Websites like Delicious.com that offer social bookmarking tools have stepped out in to the spotlight of the Web 2.0 show and are now being accepted across the education field.

“Social bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public website and ‘tagging’ them with keywords,” says Cyprien Lomas, author of “7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking” (2005). Some of you may say, “Oh I already do that on my computer.” But where social bookmarking differs from bookmarking is that a bookmark is only accessible on one computer whereas social bookmarks are linked to a website and available anywhere. This allows social bookmarking to be a huge organizational tool for students and teachers. As a college student, one might work on multiple computers in one day depending on classrooms, labs and personal computers. Social bookmarking allows students to access information wherever they need it. It also allows them to see the progress they have made on a particular research topic. Social bookmarking allows you to choose to see your tagged sites by how often you have tagged a subject. That allows students to see how much information they have on one subject versus another (Jackson 2009).

These social bookmarking websites can also be a great tool to be used by educators. With new technologies constantly coming to the forefront of education, teachers are constantly searching the web to stay up-to-date and current in their classrooms. Even if you are just searching the web for new ideas you could click on 20 sites and bookmark them, but then go back later and you won’t even remember why it was you chose that site as something important. Social bookmarking allows teachers to organize their information. And unlike bookmarking on your computer, multiple tags allow teacher to place a site under different tags to be cross-referenced.

Social bookmarking is “A globally accessible, flexible organizational system for multimedia content that organizes content in ways that make sense to both the creators and end users,” says Roger Riddell (2006). Social bookmarking is and will continue to change the way students and teachers research. A higher level of organization will allow everyone who is researching to look further and deeper for more information and not be worried about losing something along the way.

References

Jackson, L. (2009). Sites to see: Social bookmarking. Education World. Retrieved

October 11, 2009, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites080.shtml

Lomas, C. P. (2005). 7 Things you should know about social bookmarking. Educause

Learning Initiative. Retrieved from

http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSocia/156804

Riddell, R. (2006). Social boomarking makes its mark on education. eSchoolnews.

Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/topnews/index.cfm?i=42069&CFID=226156

iGoogle

2009-10-06T17:03:00.001-07:00

To the left is my AR page

To the left is my ETC page

To the left is my WGO page

RSS Feeds

2009-10-04T13:52:00.001-07:00

As I was choosing my RSS feeds, I focused on things that would either benefit me as a teacher in my own education or that I could use in the classroom.

Education: News and Videos About Education – CNN.com

This was the first feed that I chose. I think that staying up-to-date and current in the classroom is so important. As we just talked about in the other blog, teachers have to work harder than ever to make sure that our lessons are as current and applicable as possible. That starts with us personally and I felt that staying up with the latest news in education was an important step in that process.

Free Technology for Teachers

I thought that this feed looked very interesting. Obviously technology in education is something that interests me, otherwise I wouldn’t be in this program. Another part of staying current is utilizing all the tools available. I am hoping that this feed will give me a heads-up on things that I can look for to use in my classroom.

Green Options

The meteorologist and earth lover in me came out with this selection. I think it is important to teach our students how to help support our planet and environment. This is a feed that I hope to be able to look for to get ideas on how to teach students about being green and steps they can take.

ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

I hope to be teaching science next year so this link is purely prepatory. I am plan to use this feed to continue my own personal education in the field of science. It more than likely won’t be something that I will use this year, but who knows!

Yahoo! Education: Word of the Day

This is a simple feed that just offers a different word and definition. This feed is something that I would love to incorporate in to the classroom. I think it would be fun to have a different student look it up each day and see what the new word is.

BP2_2009101_Anti-Teaching

2009-10-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

“We are all cut out for learning. It is what makes us human. If our students are “not cut out for school,” perhaps we have made the mold too narrow or inflexible, or more likely, just not meaningful enough to inspire students to fit in,” (Wesch, 2008).

As I read the article from which the above statement is quoted, I wanted to scream “Thank you! Someone out there is listening!” Whoever believed that sticking 200 students in an auditorium with their $100 textbooks and their four-hour long multiple answer tests should be banished from the education world. While this method of droning on in front of a class, who is barely paying attention, may have worked at one time, it is out-dated and harmful to student’s educations. I once listened to my grandfather talk about how school worked “in his day.” He talked about how instead of testing every student with a workbook and bubble sheet, they evaluated students strengths and weaknesses, their interests and passions. If a student wanted to be a doctor, they would follow one course of work that helped prepare them for school to be a doctor, and if they wanted to be a refrigerator repairman, then by gosh they took electives in electrical mechanics. School was all about preparing for the future. We still like to use that line these days, but now it is a joke. School, for so many, has turned in to seven hours of cramming in as much information that you think might be on that standardized test as possible. I am not blaming today’s teachers for that either, and I tip my hat to those out there striving to do more in their classrooms. But as a country, until we realize that those tests aren’t going to teach our students a darn thing, there is nothing that can be done. I graduated 4^th in my class of 400 with a 4.2 weighted GPA in high school. But my FCAT, SAT and ACT scores were atrocious. Shouldn’t that say something? I worked my self to death to succeed and prepare myself for my future, but according to the state of Florida standardized tests, I was barely successful. I challenge myself, and fellow teachers, to change the way we teach. Make education mean something for your students. We can all gripe and groan all day about tests and standards and we kid ourselves if we think our students don’t pick up on that. We cannot allow ourselves to be completely governed by tests anymore. That means, if for only five minutes a day, stop focusing on the tests and the standards and teach your students something that they can apply to their lives. Just think, five minutes a day, could change your student’s lives forever. I had a teacher in high school that would take some time each week to talk about different career fields. She didn’t do it because it had to do with what was on Friday’s test or because of what we were studying, but because she thought it was important. Students still talk about how she inspired them to be more, to do more. What will you do with five minutes?

Wesch, M. (2008). Anti-teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance. Education Canada. 4-7.

BP1_2009101_BloggingAsATool

2009-10-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

As educators we have made the journey through the school system. We know what it is like to be a kindergartener on the first day, or a freshman in high school. We know what it feels like to walk across the stage on graduation and grab that little slip of paper that tells us we made it. But that also means we know what it is like to feel like you won’t make it another day, what it’s like to study all night for a test and still bomb, or have a new idea that you are just too nervous to talk about in class. As teachers and students these days fight to use every minute in the classroom to get information in to cover the tests they have to take and the standards they have to meet, it is very easy for students to feel like there isn’t a time or place to discuss things. They may never get the chance to communicate a new way to look at something, or simply the fact that they don’t understand the content well enough. We have all seen or even been the kid who was just too afraid to raise their hand. We often look at new technologies as a way to enhance the classroom, or to add something to the way we teach. However, when it comes to blogging, I think one of the best ways this tool can be used is to simply get back to the basics of communication. Blogging offers a way for students to interact casually and at their own pace. In a study done about blogging in the classroom by Nicole Ellison and Yuehua Wu from Michigan State University, it was found that the most common response to the question, “what did you like most about this assignment?” was that students felt they could use their own voice and express their own thoughts and ideas more (2008). Blogging offers a safe environment that students can interact in and talk their ideas and problems out. There is no time limit on a blog; the bell won’t ring and cut you off. I believe that if more students were encouraged to blog and write their thoughts and concerns out, it could make a world of a difference in the classroom. Reflection is an important part of learning and blogging is a perfect way to spend time hammering out the details.

Ellison, N. , Wu Y. (2008). Blogging in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration of

Student Attitudes and Impact on Comprehension. Journal of Education Multimedia & Hypermedia, 17, 99-122.

In The Beginning...

2009-10-02T05:44:00.000-07:00

Well, here goes nothing. I have to say that this program has opened me up and introduced me to more technologies and Internet resources than I ever imagined, and it's only the 4th month. I am very interested to see how this blogging thing goes.