Content, Creativity & Collaboration: Web 2.0 in the Classroom
Wednesday, 03-05-08, Jim Wenzloff
Link to Jim's Wiki:
http://anewadventure.wikispaces.com/MACUL+2008
"When an assignment is graded, learning stops." Who said this??? A friend of Jim's??? I think it was Doug Reeves.
Jim believes:
Knowledge is more important than facts
Engaged/motivated students learn more.
How to learn is more important that what you learn each day.
Test Scores will improve if students are actively involved in learning.
Students will do better work for an authentic audience.
Do we test kids on facts or on knowledge???
http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley has entire courses on-line.
The Internet (www) has evolved since it was first available in 1992. This started with Mosaic Browser.
People use it for a large variety of things, including weather reports, maps, shopping, picture storage and sharing, finding restaurants & movies, blogging, etc.
Daniel Pink's book is titled "A Whole New Mind," and comes highly recommended by Jim.
Here is a link to the book on Amazon.com. Scroll down for the book synopsis.
Doug Reeves from the Lead and Learn Institute suggests these resources engage students. We need to provide choice, student created rubrics, electronic games, variety of delivery and response, and engaging scenarios.
at YouTube you can access academic work, such as that created by Berkeley.
http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley
Fan Fiction allows one to post writing for review by an international audience. This genre supposes the writer
replicates the style of a particular author.
Collaboration web sites and software tools:
Perhaps this document would also be a good place to share sites that you individually use for collaboration and teaching purposes?
I use Zoho.com for collaboration purposes also.....It is similar to Google Docs
I have just discovered the visual dictionary and think it's awesome. http://visual.merriam-webster.com/ (I like this - Thanks for sharing)
Podcasting/Audio Tools
Language arts standards, writing script, reading script, editing
Audacity - A free audio recording application. Audacity portable version available to burn to external drive then install/run from drive if you're limited on your network, or for students to use at home. Here is a link to the page on the Audacity site that will show you how to download and install the LAME MP3 library that Audacity needs. The page includes instructions for both Mac and Windows.
Gcast.com - Record audio via cellphone right to the website. The GCast website will then generate a podcast for the audio you've recorded.
Podcasting 101 is on Jim's Site:
Podcasts-Add Audio to your podccasts
GCast-add color
Repeat the audios so that they cycle.
Copy the url and paste in the podcast.
Includes iTunes
Record Reader's Theatre, oral histories, interviews for research papers, morning announcements, etc.
Cost effective-burn all of these on CD or DVD so that kids can play for parents
A voice recorder and wireless microphone are very useful tools for podcast creation. Both can be purchased at Radio Shack.
Record presentations.
All photos taken today can be view on flickr.com MACUL 2008...This is linked to above...
Google offers so many things; go to something new {bottom right screen of home page}
lots of things you can play with.
Using the Google Docs MACUL 2008 notes document, you can view the notes from the workshop.
If you edit the notes, use a seperate area so you don't interfere with others input.
You can export the notes right from the document. You can pull up the revisions and edit it from that site.
Tool Builders
Google Custom Search - You or your kids can build their own search engine. Great to take technical info and create a user friendly search engine. You can direct them to a site or a part of the site, ie...Presidents, George Bush, history to take students to a specific area of the site. You can also bookmark or link it to your website. Also can help students get to good content.
You can have over 100 people collaborate, but you must give rights to them by inviting them.
Setup Steps
On November Learning site there are tutorials available under resources on the home page. There is also a handbook (50 pages) available under workshops. Everything is printable and updated often.
Go to iTunes look for Lit2go.com to look for books (hard copy, audio and downloadable). These are free books but tend to be older, out-of-print books. You can get teacher notes for some of the books.
iTunes, iTunes Store, iTunes U is great for resources (University section has great reality speakers regarding researched topics). There is also a public radio station available.
This resource is free once you download iTunes (go to Apple Store then iTunes).
You cannot bookmark these resources, but you can download them on your computer.
Google, more;
YouTube is a great site for University lectures and other interviews and resources.
Google.com, click on notebook and install:
Google has a notebook that you can copy and paste info from websites and then copy and paste info to
Google Docs to do a report.
Google site: Google maps:
once you enter the address, you can click on the blue line and drag it to adjust the different directions or stops to your destinations.
Go to Maps and you can edit (add text, color, shapes and pictures from the web) and save the maps for future use. You can also click on browse the directory and get popular signs to add to your maps.
Great use for the classroom to build a map with history or landmarks, etc...
Another one in Google is Alerts you can sign up for an alert with a name or phrase. Any time it comes up in the 500 or so newspapers you will receive an alert'
On to twitter.com, a site that at first you might not see the value of it. Founded by ?? It's a type of miniblog. A good location for networking. You can also send private a message. Another resource that's out there. You can set it up as a private group.
You can block people. You can keep it as private or public as you want.
maculspace.ming.org Is the macul blog. It's space for past and present MACUL members.
Members can upload pictures, videos, etc.
There are groups you might want to check out.
SigTele has a group, (third from the bottom) You can ask questions and contribute comments.
You can personalize your page. Choose colors, use pictures, etc.
You can use this for professional use and / or professional learning communities.
You can create your own ning.
Lulu.com is an online publishing site.
You can get it in all kinds of bindings. You can create a hard cover book of your entire years learning history.
How many pages, type of binding, hard or soft cover, they will tell you how much it will cost, and ask you how much you want to make? (If you choose to sell it.) It is fun for writing projects, at many different levels. You can create an art book or picture book.
Ustream.com High school students.
You can allow kids to create their own TV shows, "live". They could also create and broadcast it later. All you'll need is a webcam.
You can record lessons missing students can view it.
Low level video conference. You'd need two computers, but it can be done. Just another way you can do things to involve students in learning.
Another way is Sketchup. It's a free program. There are a lot of online tutorials. Some of your kids will love it!
Create an object in 3-D. It's not moving, we are moving around it.
Grab the push/pull tool to create the 3-D look.
You can use the pencil and find the midpoint, then take the push/pull tool and create the roof. Now you can create the arch, you can then erase the part where the door is. You will need to play with it to add color, textures, windows, etc. Show your students this and they will love it!! Let them play and they will teach you!
There are on-line tutortials and SketchUp for Dummies books available.
The are also images you can insert. (these images are not 3-D)
Special features you'll find. Blue shows perpendicular. There are tricks you can learn to keep lines parallel and perpendicular.
You can change time of day and the month of the year and view the shadows.
Another resource site for educators.
Google.com for educators google.com/educators/index.html