New Literacies

According to Zach Miners and Angela Pascopella “students require the ability not just to “read” but also to navigate the World Wide Web, locate information, evaluate it critically, synthesize it and communicate it—all skills that are becoming vital to success in this century’s economy and workforce.”  I know that I need to prepare my students to be able to function in a world that is becoming more reliant on technology. Students must have the skills and competencies that will prepare them for a successful future.

Not having the resources to access technology tools at school is a challenge that I face. At times, scheduling the computer lab at my school can be an issue.  Unfortunately, unified arts teachers are limited to the amount of days they are allowed to use the lab.

 Justifying technology to administrators is a problem that I face as well. I recently asked school an administrators and the PTO to purchase 3 laptops and 25 heart rate monitors and was declined.

My plan is to justify technology in four different areas.  As teachers we usually are evaluate in four different areas (curriculum, instruction, assessment and environment). I want to demonstrate how technology can make me a better teacher in each of these areas.  For example, I might use my blog or wiki to generated news letter that provides parents with up to date information on the schools physical education program. I might use a computer assisted software program, Internet, heart rate monitor,  or digital video feedback and show them how one of these  technology based instructional resources can help improve student learning.

I would also like share my work thus far in this class with administrators and colleagues.  I’m not aware of anyone who uses a blog or a wiki in my building. I feel that by sharing my work would allow others to see the possibility that technology offers teacher and students.  I believe that it would help justify and give me the leverage that I need to increase the use of technology in my classroom and in my building.   

 Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.

Web 2.0 Tools

More Web 2.0 Tools

One Web 2.0 tool that really stood out to me was voicethread. This is one technology tool that I would like to use with my students to support and enhance there learning. I really like that the fact that VoiceThread can provide a creative outlet for students and encourages the sharing of ideas. Students are able to use VoiceThread as interactive tool that allows them to collaborating, share, and comment. I really like how Voice Thread allows students to establish and maintain a learning experience with there classmates during the learning activity. The best part I like about voice thread is it allows students to upload pictures, narrate them, and then allows others to comment in 5 different ways-including audio and text. This is a great tool that really utilizes various ways of communication. I would use VoiceThread as a cooperative learning tool to start with and then move to other instructional strategies. I think that having my students use VoiceThread for a problem-based learning activity would be a great way to use technology to engage students with issues and questions that are relevant to their lives.

Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom Podcast

http://www.box.net/shared/fashhuf2ao

I really enjoyed learning and creating a podcast. I believe that using podcasts in the classroom could be a valuable tool for students. Using podcasts could help teachers motivate students and allow them share their learning experiences.  I would like to use podcasts in my health and physical education classes.  Student could create a week podcast describing any physical, mental, emotional, or social changes that may occur as result of making healthy lifestyle change.

Greg-

Photo-Sharing

4th a photo by MR.SMITH * on Flickr.

I selected to explore flickr.com and think that it could be a very useful tool in the classroom. I liked the fact you could create groups that are private. This way I could ensure that only people who can see the photos are the ones I selected.

At times, many parents seem to be unaware and uninterested of the positive impact that physical education can have on their child’s education. Using flicker to capture events that are occurring in my class and then sharing them with parents is one way I would like to use flicker. I believe that flicker would allow me to give parents the opportunity to become involved and I think my students’ would really enjoy posting and commenting on their photos. Using flicker in the classroom would facilitate NETS standard of using digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively.

Social Bookmarking:

Social bookmarking has the potential to be great research tool for students and teachers. I like social bookmarking sites because they can help students to find ways to search for information other than Google. Students can use this tool to save, archive, tag, and organize their own sources for individual projects. Bookmarks can also allow students to add bookmarks that they can access anytime at any computer.  Students who use these sites will also be less likely to lose links that they have found valuable. I feel that is another great Web 2.0 tool for students to use for organizing and categorizing resources.

 Teachers can also use social bookmarking to collaborate and share information with colleagues and parents who may want more information on certain topics.  I feel that teachers and students will have to invest time into learning how to use social bookmarking tools in the classroom.  So far, this tool seems relatively easy to learn and navigate.

I would like to use social bookmarking in my class as a resource for class projects and as a way for students keep up to date on current health events. In health class, every Friday we have “current events” in which students will find a new article, magazine article, or website to share with the class.  Using a social bookmarking site would be a great way to have student to tag, share, add, or create a new bookmarks to use in the future. Using social booking in class would fall under NEST’s standards “conducting research and use information and “communicating and collaborating”.

Exploring RSS:

Exploring the RSS and setting up a feed reader will save me a lot of time and energy. Keeping track and up to date with all the information that is published on the internet will be so much easier now that I have set up a RRS feed. More importantly, it will give me a place to organize and keep track of information that I want to share with my students. For example, if we are doing a project in class I could select several blogs, wikis, or websites that I want my students to search. According to Richardson 2009, “students can be immediately updated when information about research topics is published”. Once today’s students inter the workforce they will have to be able to consistently collect relevant information quickly. Teaching students about RSS feed is research and information fluency skill that meets NETS.  I believe that teacher students about RSS feeds will make the more effective researchers.

 Richardson,W.(2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Wiki Exploration:

Exploring the wiki sites this week was a very eye opening experience for me. I was not that familiar with wiki’s until I enrolled into this class. Of course I knew about Wikipedia, but never thought it was a tool that I could use in my own classroom. I am really amazed with all the collaboration tools that are available for students today. I enjoyed creating the wiki, but I believe that using a blog might be easier to use in class as of now.

I like the idea of using a wiki for a class project.  When I assign student projects I expect every group member to share information, collaborate, and actively participate. I know that there are times where some students do a majority of the work on the project and the others sit back and reap the benefits. Using a wiki could allow me to keep track of every group member’s work. This would meet NETS standard of collaboration and communication.

Link to my wiki: http://oomshealthandpe.pbworks.com/w/page/37025372/FrontPage

WSYX ABC6 On Your Side Top Story - S.B. 5 'Sad Day for Ohio Teachers"

http://www.abc6onyourside.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wsyx_vid_9568.shtml?sms_ss=google&at_xt=4d6f1b3f69e36396%2C0

Where do we go from here???

First Post: Using Blogs In The Classroom

I teach middle school health and physical education and believe that using blogs could be a very important teaching tool. I would initially like to start to use a weblog in my classroom for posting class-related information such as class events, rules, homework assignments, to communicate with parents and for other pertinent class information. I would eventually like to see it blossom into a place where student could use as a forum to collaborate with others and interact with class content. It would be great to provide students with a stage to voice their opinions about class activities, discuss class topics, and share their ideas or ask questions about the class content. I feel that it is important to teach students how to use technology because it is a literacy tool that will allow them to be more productive in today’s society.  Using a blog in this fashion would facilitate one or more of the NETS standards.

Greg-