Project- Me and Ed
  I want to incorporate edmodo as a communication tool in my class this year. The more I looked into it the more I liked it. As I went back and reviewed the guidelines I set up for myself,  I realized edmodo could help me with all but one of these. My project then shows how I will use edmodo to meet my guidelines, and, I hope switch from a traditional "talking" teacher to one who guides students in their, hopefully, never-ending quest for knowledge!
 I have summarized my work in a prezi, which can be accessed here. Please let me know if the prezi isn't working correctly

Discussions

    In our discussion group it seemed that the participants got alot out of the course. They seemed to appreciate being made to take the time to explore these new teaching tools, and some expressed their initial trepedation and subsequent excitement over the new tools discovered. Another common theme of our discussion was the value of blogging. Some of us had  tried it before, and we all seem to have a better appreciation of this tool, and how valuable it can be in a class.
    Personally, I was reminded that differentiation can, and realized it should  be done, for the brighter students as well as students who learn more slowly. This helps me with rethinking my approach to engaging those bright students who don't like to do homework. In this discussion of ours, I once again realized how our professor is modeling an approach to learning that is very effective and meaningful. He has done this by forcing us to express ourselves and ponder each others ideas and comments. We are teaching ourselves, by our discussions and by digging out the content that best suits our styles of teaching. We are constantly processing what we learn and evaluate the pros and cons of different tools, and, as in our discussion, we get helpful tips from each other. I got the sense from our discussion, that this course will have a lasting affect on all of our teaching, not only in using different web tools, but also in how we approach learning.

QR. edmodo, piazza

This week I started looking into Edmodo as a communication system for my classes, and so far so, good. To me it almost seems like a private twitter account- I think I will still use the wiki, and you can send files and such over Edmodo, but I like the visuals of a wiki- can post videos, animations photos, etc. I will use edmodo to alert students of what they should check out on the wiki, and they can also send me homework via Edmodo, and not have everyone see it ( I think). Also Edmodo can be accessed by their smart phones- and last year I was amazed at the number of students who said they really check their email that often anymore. Then I found you could also send QR codes over edmodo- and so that has me thinking. The other thing I would like to incorporate in all this is to encourage my brighter students to help other students- Piazza - is a tools which encourages this, and I need to evaluate if I will use this, with a link to the wiki, or just the wiki in having students answer each others questions ( on problems etc.)

Playing around

One of the things I have been investigating a little is gaming  in the classroom- I attended a webinar today and got a couple websites I thought I might share with you all. The presenter was the creator of  an educational game company- filament-click on the project link to see their games.  One of the participants also suggested we watch the TED video "John Hunter on the World Peace Game". It is a good one, so I thought I would share it.

Final Project Idea

I would like to do something to encourage students to interact online. I would like for them to think about what we are learning, process it in their own minds, and then comment on it somehow. I believe the online tools are excellent for this because of the many reasons addressed in the blog article. I haven't quite decided how I am going to do this-maybe through Edmodo, or maybe through the wiki, or we might have a class blog ( linked to the wiki). I doubt if I will use Twitter- I myself like the info from Twitter, but am not good at tweeting. I also have to ponder the logistics, but this is my idea.

QR coded Periodic Table

 If any of you are chemistry teachers, you may be familiar with the Periodic Table of Videos made by those good people at the University of Nottingham. Well- from my PLN, I got a photo of the table in QR code. If you have a smart phone you can take a photo of  the code for any element and it will link you to the video for that element- how cool is that!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/periodicvideos/5915143448/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Week 5 Reflection

    This week we have focused on wiki's and blogs. I am somewhat familiar with wikis ( although I didn't know wiki, wiki was a Hawaiian term meaning quick) because I have used  one this past year in my classes. The previous year I had used a blog, but with both tools I did not use them to their full potential. This year I will try to  do so. I wanted an online site where I could post resources and help for my classes- a wiki does this better than a blog. I can embed videos, notes, tutorials, class photos and slideshows, games I make to review content etc.etc.  Wiki's also provide a place for students to ask questions (in comments). However, I discovered two things this year: 1. Some students really got a lot out of the wiki and used it extensively, others did not.  2. Very few students left comments.
   Having taken this class, I feel more prepared to address these two discoveries. I can require students to comment and /or have a link to a blog, where they must comment. I do think blogging is a very good form of processing what students have learned- for me and for them.  I also think, some students need the online, at home review of the class where they can learn at their own pace. I also liked having all my multimedia material  for class in one place ( on my wiki) so I didn't have to hunt for a video or a simulation on my computer during class- I just pulled up the wiki for that class, and everything was there- either the link or the video embedded, or a photo etc.  An interesting thing I found was that I did have a few very bright, students who never used the wiki ( unless I assigned an online test or quiz - and even then  they would blow it off sometimes). They just wanted to learn everything in class and didn't want to go through the extra effort to get online. They of course are also the ones who didn't do much homework either.  I now have some better ideas of how they might be motivated to do more, but honestly I do think there are students who don't need any of these things and just want to learn the material in a quick and easy format-"just throw the info at me; I get it;  leave me alone until you test me". There are not a lot of these types of students, but there are some.
   In conclusion, I have include this video about advice on using wiki's in the classroom:

Writing, The Brain, Math & Science

I just found this article,"The Brain based Benefits of Writing for Science and Math" by Judy Willis, from my PLN on the value of writing in the math and science areas based on brain development theories. I thought I would share it with you all. I found the info of how stress affects learning to be particularly interesting. I have had a few students who " stress out" when taking tests, and now this makes so much more sense. A little light bulb also went on, in understanding how the tone set in the classroom is so important. Students need to feel comfortable enough to ask questions, yet not so comfortable that they say anything they want. A tricky balance to be sure.

Week 4 Reflection

Week 4 blog

   The comment that stood out the most for me was “Use the technology to teach, don’t teach the technology”. This is always good to remember- I know I have spent hours  trying to figure out a technology tool, or how to download info, or sign students up or …..   We don’t have the time to teach the students how to use complicated technology tools- although granted, most, but not all, of them pick this stuff up faster than I do.  I do like the argument approach to learning- it fits in very nicely with the other things we have been discussing, especially the 21thc skill set and inquiry learning. I like the approach Sampson and Grooms took and will try to use a combination of their approach and “Whiteboarding” which I read about in Frank Noschese’  blog- “The $2 Whiteboard”. Although in an ideal class I would have all the students with tablets instead of whiteboards,  that would be able to be projected on a screen.  I think whiteboards would be a better to use than posters from an eco-friendly stand point.  Of course you could always use Glogster too- but when I have had students do Glogsters they can get caught up in the bells and whistles and the content tends to suffer, with whiteboarding  the content is paramount. I have also found a few good online sites for data- The amusement park site has physics lessons and simulations on building your own amusement park rides. In my brief exploration of this site it sounded like a good intro to kinetic and potential energy.  Another site was from the Fermi labs. They give you data from their labs to use in different lessons. This may be good for gifted students or those in A.P. classes.

   I added many of the sites mentioned in our textbook to my livebinders-a few I had heard of before, but many more sounded very interesting , and I will have to check out before I cover those concepts in class (like the virtual optic bench).  I have used several of the pHET simulations before and found the students really do like them- it helps them visualize what is going on.  Another site- which isn’t necessarily online data, but does have some good animations that can be manipulated is the  Physics 2000 site. One last  site  I will mention is the EPA datafinder site. This is an entry point into the data that the EPA collects.

 I like the whole idea of having students enter data into a global network. This spring in my environmental biology class I found a site, where the students posted simple test results from a water sample that could be shared with students around the globe. I had a problem uploading the data, but that was after we did the tests. We tested the Colorado River water and I felt the students felt more of a buy in and conscientiousness in the lab because they knew it was going to be shared with a global audience.  I’m starting to wonder if this whole idea of having an audience isn’t an intrinsic motivator for some of our students.

Tools I Have Discovered in the Last 3 Weeks

These are a few of the tools I have started using now
Livebinders-
     This I like better than Delicious for my classes because I can easily organize resources for each class into a binder-and somehow binders I can relate to. I also think, once my classes start up again, I will post the binder for that class on its wiki. If I assign a project or want to provide supplemental materials on a chapter I can also put websites in a binder and "give" it to the class.

paper.li-
     This allows me to put my twitter feeds into one place and gives me an email everyday where I can quickly go through the new info and go further  with the info if I want. I also like how an Earth Science teacher used it for current events in her class and will try to do something like this in my classes too.

Edmodo
   I have heard great things about this and will try it this school year. What appeals to me about it, is it seems like an education facebook, twitter, type tool. I like this. It separates the private lives of students and my private life from my students but seems to have the connectivity ( through phones etc) that will make it very useful. I know lots of educators are going the facebook route- but I teach high school, and there are some things I just don't want to be aware of in my high school students lives. I am old-fashioned that way- what I want to know about them, I can ask or they can tell me, in person. However, I have found they do like to "connect" and so this tool seems like a good solution.

I have used a fair amount of the other tools- and the ones I like, and students seem to enjoy using are:
Animoto, Toondoo, GoAnimate, Wallwisher, pbworks, blabberize, Voki, Sliderocket, Prezi, Google Reader