An avalanche of ideas to implement is what comes to mind when I think of this class. I feel very comfortable now with the delicious tool and finding my way around a blog. And I have a much greater understanding of wikis; I think it may be the answer to my department’s constant lament that we never have time to share resources and curriculum ideas. If Christmas really does come in October, I’d like to have a wiki potluck party at my house and have the willing among my department-mates over to set up a wikispace. It would be quite fun to set up delicious networks with them as well. We share the same students among the different ESL subjects and I think these types of tools are just perfect for us. Podcasts are probably my favorite though, of all the tools we’ve looked at. Not only personally with all those NPR, French, piano, and pilates free video/podcasts waiting for me, but the esl podcasts will work very well with all of my levels of students, from beginners English to advance. The RSS feed is going to make life so much more efficient too to check the flood of incoming info. So I’m feeling very excited about all the web 2.0, and 1.0, knowledge I’ve gained and I feel confident that I’ll be able to implement many of them(and when I can’t I know people I can collaborate with now too.)
Reflection on Read~Web 2.0 Class
July 26th, 2007 by chopstks · 2 Comments · Read~Write Web 2.0 Classwork 7/23/07
Final Project
July 26th, 2007 by chopstks · 20 Comments · Read~Web Project
The what, the why and the how
My final project for this class is a blog, ushis.edublogs.org for my Advanced ESL US History class. This is a real change in teaching practice to include interactive technology in the classroom. Prior to this, they have used the web primarily to research topics to present on in class. Now they’ll do searches in a much more knowledgeable manner with more understanding of the value and cautions of Wikipedia, for instance. On the blog, I will also include a page on the best ways to search on the web and how to evaluate websites too. The blog as you see it set up initially, has a welcome post and the first assignment. There are pages with links to Internet Safety and Netiquette for both students and parents. I hope this will provide new opportunities for the families of my students to see what they’re doing in their new American classrooms, and learn about Internet use as well; this will be a change in that it’s one more way I’m trying to reach out to the parents. The history class will start the semester with discussions of these proper Internet usage and safety links. I’ve also built a collection of links in delicious that students will use as we begin the first unit on the Oregon Trail and Lewis and Clark. As they get more comfortable posting comments on the class blog, we’ll move on to the next page that has a link for students to set up their student blogs on edublog. The students will be collaborating with each other and with me, creating parts of the curriculum and helping to guide the direction that the class will move in. We may spend more or less time on the late 19th century, for instance, depending on their interest level. As we go through the semester, I plan to set the delicious links for each subsequent topic. I hope to find rss feeds too that are the appropriate reading levels for my ESL students. I think the students will get a lot out of this, knowledge and a newfound sense of curiosity, and who knows where it could take us.( I’m thinking it’s going to take me back to a computer class next summer!)Project Thoughts
July 24th, 2007 by chopstks · 1 Comment · Read~Web Project
I’ve had several thoughts and haven’t settled on one. I would like to have a classblog up and running with delicious links for different classes that I teach. I don’t know yet if students will be able to have email accounts at school so I’m not certain if I’ll be able to have them make blogs and post portfolios of their work (much like the Yarmouth art teacher’s you showed us) I think it would be great if I could make it accessible to parents as well. I’d like to look at a lot of teacher’s classroom blogs to get more ideas and see what blog site they used. I’ve started with Weebly.com (lemonred@weebly.com) and I’m awaiting a response from them about moderating comments. This would be good while they’re learning the ground rules of netiquette. More evolution of the project tomorrow
Comments on Must Read Articles
July 24th, 2007 by chopstks · 2 Comments · Read~Write Web 2.0 Classwork 7/23/07
Karl Fisch attended the NECC conference and has posted on his Fischbowl blog, thefischbowl.blogspot.com , reflections on his experiences. The article I read, NECC Reflection #4, he discussed how he and his co-presenters had left other sessions at this, their first NECC conference, often exhilarated but uncertain how and if they themselves could ever get to that point at their schools as well. So the night before they were to present, they actually scraped their plans and restructured so that they would only present for 30 minutes and address questions the remaining 30 minutes. Not unusual so much, except for the fact that they also thought to address that problem by podcasting their presentation. After the session, and even now, persons interested in the presentation, or needing a review of the answers, can go to the podcast and listen in. It was refreshing to hear this is being done more at conferences and that even presenters feel overwhelmed at tech conferences by all of the info.
At www.speedofcreativity.org , an article on the reality of videoconferencing with cell phones is explained by Wesley Fryer. ATT has a new videoconferencing technology available that may change the practical use of the cell phone in the classroom. While many schools block Skype, he notes, this new technology will allow students, and teachers, in the classroom more contact options. This might lead to more productive uses of what is often perceived as a “disruptive technology,” he suggests. This would be a positive step I agree.
Using delicious
July 24th, 2007 by chopstks · No Comments · Read~Write Web 2.0 Classwork 7/23/07
Using delicious links will be great for my ESL history classes. At the beginning of the year I can supply easily accessible links for their chosen study topics and part of their assignment will be to add 1-2 links to that topic. It will focus their research and help to dissolve some of the sensory overload they experience with so much English on the page.
It will also be very useful with the ESL English Beginners. After I do my (very) introductory computer unit, I will have some delicious links available for them to explore and assign them to use them at the library after school. They’re eager to learn and will adapt to them quickly.
Goals for Read~Write Web class
July 23rd, 2007 by chopstks · No Comments · Read~Write Web 2.0 Classwork 7/23/07
In this class, I hope to become more proficient with these alien web 2.0 tools. I’m going to set up a personal blog with links to my fledgling teacher blog. I want to get an RSS feed set up, and have del.icio.us links of my favorite websites and podcasts.
