Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Did Web 2.0 turn into Web 3.0 and nobody told me? I feel like I'm in a technology marathon racing toward the finish line of my technology course. Of course there is no finish line … technology will just keep evolving. So why fight it?

Source: theguardian.com

When I first started this course just seven weeks ago, I couldn't even imagine what “integrating technology into the curriculum” could possibly mean. Suffice it to say, I am now enlightened to the fact that technology does indeed have a place in the classroom. First and foremost, however, the question must always be asked - what is the learning goal at hand and will this technology tool help. 

After learning about QR Codes, Glogster, Tagxedo, ThingLink, YouTube, Blabberize, BibMe, Curriculet, and Prezi, to name a few, I can see how today’s learner would embrace these tools. A field-test validated my opinion on this. Perhaps it's to be expected that digital tools, in general, appeal to the digital generation of learners. Some of these tools seem to be geared more toward helping the teacher organize and share content, but they also serve to engage the students. A short list is Popplet, Polleverywhere, Wikispaces, and Prezi.

Source:haydenwilcox.edublogs.org

I also found there is an opportunity to use technology when differentiating learning. This is especially important for students with learning disabilities and other special needs. For example, if a student struggles with handwriting and copying notes, it would make sense to provide the opportunity to do this on a laptop. If students are reluctant to write down assignments in their planner or notebook, the assignment can be posted via a QR code. The student scans it, and it will be on their phone. It really surprised me how easy creating a QR code is. Before this class I saw them as mysterious secret messages created by a large corporations, something akin to a UPC code.

I have a list of no less than 30 technologies we covered in the past seven weeks. Many of these technologies were the subject of my blog, or I used them to create this blog. Since I have a professional web site now (smile) I can point you in the direction of the Cool Tools tab if you want to check some of these out for yourself. 

There's a saying, "Take what you like, and leave the rest." How do you know what you like if you don't keep an open mind and consider the possibilities?

Media Literacy

We recently discussed "media literacy" and if it should be taught to students. My short answer to this is, yes, we do need to teach media literacy to students.

What does the term "media literacy" mean? That term can mean many things to many people. Does it mean I can understand (read, hear, see) the content coming from the media? Sure. That's the literal meaning. Real media literacy is understanding what the message is intending to say, what its message

Source: LouisKennedy.wordpress.com

and purpose is, and then asking "Do I believe this? Do I agree with this? Is there another side of the

story I need to pay attention to? Can I choose to see something else?" In many cases, those, along with an infinite number of other questions, should come up. At the heart of teaching media literacy is really teaching critical thinking skills.

Media has been around forever, as long as there has been advertising, newspapers, music, theater, opinion polls, editorials, political cartoons, etc. Media literacy needs to be top of mind now due to the exponential increase in production and consumption of digital media. With this explosion come messages from sources that may not have been encountered before and covering topics previously never discussed. How to identify media itself is an important part of media literacy.

Having spent my undergrad studying marketing and then working in sales and marketing, I have a keen eye for media literacy. Of course that ad is showing those images - that's the point! "Buy this product and the image you are looking at will be you!"

Source: simplydevise.com

Like many, I enjoy the Superbowl commercials because they can be very entertaining. It does give me some solace that I really don't remember many of the actual products the funny (or annoying) commercials were selling. But this is media literacy at its simplest. I think most people, once they understand the purpose of advertising get this. To be fair, advertising is not a bad thing. It's a necessary part of doing business.

A bit more complicated is that media can't be discussed without marketing. We must realize that everything is marketed, and not all intentionally. Like it or not, we are all in marketing. We market ourselves everyday by how we perform our jobs, how we dress, where we spend our time. And, yes, what we say, but we all know actions speak louder than words. Marketing is getting a message out.

In a sense, we are a form of media. Being aware of this may not change a thing about ourselves ... or will it?

Source: VeryBestQuotes.com

Personal Learning Network, or PLN

Since networking is one of the most important things in any profession, it was no surprise that developing my own Personal Learning Network, or PLN, was an assignment for my Integrating Technology into the Curriculum class.

The concept of using Twitter as a PLN tool in education was new to me. My experience with Twitter up to this point was either reading Twitter headlines on my smart phone, or tweeting marketing announcements in my prior business life.

Since I don't have a classroom of my own yet, I am of "new teacher" status and want to pick up any tips and tricks I can. When I searched #ntchat (new teacher chat) I found a post by Jessica Lahey who wrote about Three Things Students Wish Teachers Knew, for the New Yrok Times. Jessica summarizes the result of her poll:

"... So there you have it teachers of America: Be fair, consider your homework assignments carefully and with an eye to utility, and treat sutdents like people ..."

Next, I was ready to tackle participating in an #edchat. A edchat is a weekly scheduled conversation (chat), via Twitter that focuses on the topic of education. The chat I joined was #nt2t (new teacher to Twitter). I participated using TWUBS. I have no idea what it stands for. TWitter U Be Smart? Not really, but that's how I remember it. The best part of using TWUBS is that the chat stream can be slowed down or sped up. Try a #chat yourself and you'll see exactly why this is important.

The contributors shared many useful insights and links. When something looked interesting to me I "favorited" it, which saves the original tweet for future reference. There were several questions about how to use Twitter, so I posted a link to Dummies Twitter Cheat Sheet and it was favorited! Since I used Google link shortener I can see that, to date, that link was clicked 17 times. How's that for positive reinforcement?

Of the many education resources I found on Twitter, I found a post on the chat, #sped, that caught my attention from Linda Lighter @LisaLightnerll who is an advocate for special needs. She addressed the issue of students being sent home for behavior. In special ed, behavior is of special interest to me, so I'm glad I found her blog from #sped as a resource.

#sped chat on TWUBS

There is so much information out there, it takes awareness and intention when developing and using a PLN. Otherwise, you may find yourself quoting actress Betty White from Saturday Night Live in 2010. She was talking about Facebook, but any social media can be inserted here:

“I really have to thank Facebook. When I first heard about the campaign to get me to host Saturday Night Live, I didn’t know what facebook was and now that I do know what it is, I have to say it sounds like a huge waste of time” -Betty White

Betty White has been on Twitter since 2012 and her last post was May 30th: The Official Twitter Page of Betty White. I think it's important to keep a sense of humor in life. So here is a link to some fun Betty White quotes.

Tech-Tac-Toe ... Tagxedo Word Clouds

I used Tagxedo word clouds for learning vocabulary words. The topic I chose was the News2You  weekly topic, which was the 2014 World Cup that will be held in Brazil. News2You is an online newspaper for Special Education, in this case, a high school Transitional Life Skills class. 

In addition to the usual worksheets and activities that accompany vocabulary, using a word cloud gives students extra practice with their their typing, spelling, keyboarding, and computer skills. Not to mention the sense of accomplishment!

Personal Tagxedo with Vocabulary Words

Tagxedo is free and can be found at www.tagxedo.com. I found this tool much easier to use over Wordle, which I thought was the only game in town for word clouds. The other tool I looked at was Tagul, and it looked promising as well. What Tagxedo offers is a user-friendly interface and plenty of examples. Once the words are entered, click "Create", and the tool walks you right through the process. After clicking "Submit", the cloud is ready for personalization with color, font, and shape options.

I was thrilled at how easy it was to save the Tagxedo in any number of sizes and formats. Once saved, it can be printed or shared just like any other jpg.

Personal copy of Tagxedo word cloud.

Once again, I was reminded that when a learning activity is put into motion, the creative thought process for students and teachers kicks into gear. As you can imagine, the students did not need much encouragement to play around with colors, fonts, and shapes. Some of the students that I didn't think would be able to follow the instructions really surprised me. No doubt, a lot of instruction is needed for this audience, but  I see this is an opportunity to encourage student helping student.

 Take a look at a Tagxedo a student put together. Emma happens to like music and the color pink.

Personal copy of Tagxedo word cloud.

Another creative tool to be on the look-out for is "Poligonian". I found this after I visited Tagxedo's Facebook page. Poligonian is in beta, and only works with a Chrome browser. If you check it out, be sure to scroll down and look at all the images. Amazing.

Tech-Tac-Toe ... Blabberize

I created this Blabber for students in a high school Special Ed class to learn five fun facts about Abe Lincoln. The end result was fun and the students loved it. 

Photo Source: en.wikipedia.org

Creating a Blabber is great for a group or team exercise where tasks would be assigned to match and enhance diverse ability levels. In addition, group learning allows for students to build social skills, sharing, tolerance, leadership, and more. Some of the steps needed to make a Blabber include deciding on a topic, researching the facts, searching Google Images, downloading the image, making the Blabber itself, and, finally, sharing the finished product. When I first saw Blabberize, I admit, I didn't think much of it. However, after going through the process of creating Abe Lincoln, I realized this has quite a bit of hidden potential. It can be used with endless topics throughout the year and is a fun way to get students interacting with technology ... and each other.

Blabberize is a free tool and can be found at www.blabberize.com. The most difficult part for me was making the mouth move. That's when I turned to this video below, another Web 2.0 tool! Even with the step by step instructions, I found the tool didn't save well and was very cumbersome. If I ever figure out how to master this, then I'll definitely use it again.

 
Source: YouTube Erinnielsen28 

Thank you Miss Nielsen, I couldn't have made this Blabber without you!

Tech-Tac-Toe ... QR Codes

I wanted to try a technology tool that would engage students in a high school Academic Literacy class especially when they become "zoned out". Since scanning a QR (quick response) code requires a smart phone, this has an immediate hook for today's student.

When I "field tested" this exercise to help learn vocabulary words the response was all positive. "Cool!" "I would totally use that!"

The homework assignment was uploaded using another Web 2.0 tool, Scribd. It can be found at http://www.scribd.com/upload-document#  It's great for embedding a Word document in a web page, such as this blog.
For the above assignment, I used an existing homework assignment, and modified it to include QR codes. Using QR codes is not difficult, but it is somewhat of a tedious task depending on how many codes are needed. I used www.qrstuff.com to generate the QR codes by simply typing in the vocabulary word and definition. One click, and the QR code appeared. Since I had 10 vocabulary words, I figured out a naming convention right away in order to get the right code with the right word. I copied and pasted the codes on the above Word document, and resized the codes to save space.

QR codes can be read from paper or on a computer screen. Once scanned, the content can be saved by the student any number of ways for future reference. The best thing about the tool is that students like it and therefore will engage with the learning content associated with it.

What is ThingLink?

Have you ever heard of ThingLink? No, it’s not a Dr. Seuss character (remember Thing One and Thing Two?) Although, a student could use ThingLink to do a report about Dr. Seuss. Or just about anything else for that matter.

ThingLink Logo

ThingLink is a free, web based tool and has mobile apps for iPad and Android. Simply upload an image to ThingLink, then click on the image itself to insert text, links, videos, music, and more. The image or photo, once static, becomes interactive. When using this in the classroom, it enables a student to show what they know and have learned about a topic by creating content to go with the image.

ThingLink was a topic for the ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) Wednesday Webinar series; it was moderated by Nicole Zumpano, Dominican professor, and presented by Sue Gorman, professor at the  University of Wisconsin – Parkside.

The many examples in the webinar included using ThingLink for book reports – students can insert text to demonstrate their knowledge of characters and the plot, link to a website to provide more information discovered about the topic, and embed a video to show a visual representation of a topic.

One such book report was done by a student named Gavin, on the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio, that was tweeted out by ThingLink.

Image from @ThingLink_edu on Twitter

http://t.co/JiNelh9K12

During the webinar, Sue provided an energetic presentation on the benefits of using ThingLink. It can provide (digitized) differentiated learning, increase collaboration, and ultimately increase learner engagement. Any technology tool, when it’s the right tool for the task, can help students amplify their thinking in this digital age. 

SAMR model developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura

Sue demonstrated how using ThingLink in the classroom fits with the SAMR Model, and allows for teaching “above the line”. The SAMR Model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition), developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, offers a method of seeing how computer technology might impact teaching and learning.

More about Sue – she is a Google Certified Teacher and an Apple Distinguished Educator and a kind friend you definitely want to get to know for your Personal Learning Network (PLN). She introduced several members of her own PLN and shared many real world examples of how these talented professionals are using technology effectively in the classroom. To follow Sue on Twitter, you can find her at: @sjgorman. 

Be sure to visit www.ThingLink.com/featured to see some imaginative ideas. You may even want to sign up and get started yourself.

As far as webinar learning goes, I like the format. Since it's recorded, I will likely go back and refer to it in the future since it is loaded with information relevant to what I'm learning at Dominican.