From Teaching Hack:
Here are a few but check out the site for more ideas:
1. Groups of students doing a classroom project sharing theirbookmarks, a teacher subscribed to their rss feed to see the directionof their research. (FURL - teacher can review and comment on resourcesthat are bookmarked)
2. Resource teacher does a PD event with a group of teacherscreates a shared del.icio.us account where teachers can post researchand information bookmarks that they gather throughout the year. Allmembers continuously benefit from this shared resource.
3. Rate and review bookmarks to help other students to decide on usefulness of resources
I have to say I feel like I was living in a cave not to have heard of social bookmarking, although not having done much in the way of research for a few years I can understand why, but sounds great for helping students gather resources.
One of my hesitations is the "pooled ignorance" possibility of social bookmarking, where anyone can create their own tags and classification of resources unlike the old Dewey Decimal system (creak! goes my rocker, I feel old) that I'm used to and the standard library classification systems of resources. On top of teaching the subject matter educators really have to help students navigate their way through these new resources and all of the information coming at them, but for example, number 3 on the suggestion list would be a great discussion and activity in the classroom, where students and teacher could decide what or what is not a useful resource and why. Simply the process of tagging resources causes students to make decisions and become involved in the thought process of differentiating between useful and non-useful information.
Friday, March 9, 2007
A new high-tech take on school group project
The Boston Globe covered a "Wikimania" conference in August 2006 at Harvard Law where the many uses of wikis were discussed, including use in the classroom. One Israeli professor has his students update an outdated textbook on a wiki as their school project. This project was successful and the professor said, "``Students like the notion of knowledge being malleable, evolving, and actually living through their work."
What is a wiki? It is a web page that can be edited and changed, and the most common one, or the only one I knew of is wikipedia. However this is a new tool for classroom use and when a teacher uses it in the classroom, it can engage the student in their subject matter they are learning by requiring them to maintain and update a wiki (over rote memorization).
From the Globe, "Other teachers use wikis instead of standard research papers. Computer science teacher Vicki Davis of Georgia replaced a 200-question exam with a wiki project. She said that students learned more because they had to synthesize, source, and edit content instead of memorize and that quality went up because students interacted .
She's found students updating the wikis near midnight and discussing changes on blogs.
``It becomes part of their lives," she said. ``Instead of MySpace and social networking, they are going on the wiki, talking about education."
I loved that; a positive and constructive use for wikis as an alternative to MySpace!
What is a wiki? It is a web page that can be edited and changed, and the most common one, or the only one I knew of is wikipedia. However this is a new tool for classroom use and when a teacher uses it in the classroom, it can engage the student in their subject matter they are learning by requiring them to maintain and update a wiki (over rote memorization).
From the Globe, "Other teachers use wikis instead of standard research papers. Computer science teacher Vicki Davis of Georgia replaced a 200-question exam with a wiki project. She said that students learned more because they had to synthesize, source, and edit content instead of memorize and that quality went up because students interacted .
She's found students updating the wikis near midnight and discussing changes on blogs.
``It becomes part of their lives," she said. ``Instead of MySpace and social networking, they are going on the wiki, talking about education."
I loved that; a positive and constructive use for wikis as an alternative to MySpace!
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Write for Your Life
I ran across a fantastic article today by Anna Quindlen in Newsweek called Write for Your Life where she describes the new movie "Freedom Writers", about the power of writing and its ability to transform, in this case, at-risk students. She desribes the wide-eyed teacher, who
".. one day, she gives them all marbled composition books and the assignment to write their lives, ungraded, unjudged, and the world breaks open."
Quindlen writes about the teacher in the movie, "Ms. G, as the kids called her, embraced a concept that has been lost in modern life: writing can make pain tolerable, confusion clearer and the self stronger." In addition to a form of self-expression, writing shapes thought; it allows a student to take rough ideas and form them into organized, cohesive thoughts. It reflects the thought process and guides it.
So beyond the marbled composition books, in thinking about blogging as a new tool that students and teachers have for practicing writing in its many forms for any subject matter, the practice of blogging can make writing more of a habit and more accessible to students. In so doing blogging can provide all the things of the composition books (clarity, catharsis, self-expression) and can also provide the writer with a participatory audience.
I loved this quote of Quindlen's as she laments the lack of everyday prose in today's world: "And in the age of the telephone most communication became evanescent, gone into thin air no matter how important or heartfelt. Think of all those people inside the World Trade Center saying goodbye by phone. If only, in the blizzard of paper that followed the collapse of the buildings, a letter had fallen from the sky for every family member and friend, something to hold on to, something to read and reread. Something real. Words on paper confer a kind of immortality. Wouldn't all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost? Shouldn't all of us leave a bit of that behind?"
It may not be words on a paper but getting into the practice of blogging, whether for personal or academic, political or professional use allows everyone with internet access to leave a bit behind.
".. one day, she gives them all marbled composition books and the assignment to write their lives, ungraded, unjudged, and the world breaks open."
Quindlen writes about the teacher in the movie, "Ms. G, as the kids called her, embraced a concept that has been lost in modern life: writing can make pain tolerable, confusion clearer and the self stronger." In addition to a form of self-expression, writing shapes thought; it allows a student to take rough ideas and form them into organized, cohesive thoughts. It reflects the thought process and guides it.
So beyond the marbled composition books, in thinking about blogging as a new tool that students and teachers have for practicing writing in its many forms for any subject matter, the practice of blogging can make writing more of a habit and more accessible to students. In so doing blogging can provide all the things of the composition books (clarity, catharsis, self-expression) and can also provide the writer with a participatory audience.
I loved this quote of Quindlen's as she laments the lack of everyday prose in today's world: "And in the age of the telephone most communication became evanescent, gone into thin air no matter how important or heartfelt. Think of all those people inside the World Trade Center saying goodbye by phone. If only, in the blizzard of paper that followed the collapse of the buildings, a letter had fallen from the sky for every family member and friend, something to hold on to, something to read and reread. Something real. Words on paper confer a kind of immortality. Wouldn't all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost? Shouldn't all of us leave a bit of that behind?"
It may not be words on a paper but getting into the practice of blogging, whether for personal or academic, political or professional use allows everyone with internet access to leave a bit behind.
Monday, March 5, 2007
What is web 2.0
What is web 2.0?
This is a fascinating video clip that highlights some of the ways that technology is rapidly changing and how that can impact the classroom What is Web 2.0 video clip
The "we are the web" part is really possible now with the Write web tools. Its an exciting time for me to think about my technology background and now with how I can bring that to the classroom when I start to teach again.
This is a fascinating video clip that highlights some of the ways that technology is rapidly changing and how that can impact the classroom What is Web 2.0 video clip
The "we are the web" part is really possible now with the Write web tools. Its an exciting time for me to think about my technology background and now with how I can bring that to the classroom when I start to teach again.
My first blog
Introduction to my blog...
I am a corporate IT professional, working from home and supporting hardware, software, and network issues for a large company based in Philadelphia. While at home, I also take care of my three children, ages 8, 5, and 3 and am now working on re-activating my teaching certificate so I can get into teaching and back into the classroom.
My dream is to be a middle school English teacher again, and I am on the look-out for other blogs of educators who specifically have entered or re-entered the teaching field after working in industry or corporate America.
I am a corporate IT professional, working from home and supporting hardware, software, and network issues for a large company based in Philadelphia. While at home, I also take care of my three children, ages 8, 5, and 3 and am now working on re-activating my teaching certificate so I can get into teaching and back into the classroom.
My dream is to be a middle school English teacher again, and I am on the look-out for other blogs of educators who specifically have entered or re-entered the teaching field after working in industry or corporate America.
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