Welcome to the Illinois Education and Technology Conference 2008!
Integrating technology into your classroom can improve student engagement and involve parents from a distance. Come hear about successful assignments that encourage active learning. Discuss how to develop technology-enhanced assignments and why students like them. Become familiar with easy-to-use, FREE tools to implement these types of assignments in your classroom.
We're looking forward to sharing three major Web 2.0 technologies that you can integrate into your classroom -- no downloads, installations, or money required. Today we'll discuss exactly what these technologies are, share successful integrations from a middle school language arts classroom, and then demonstrate how to get started with each. Please note that all the post titles are clickable and take you to helpful websites relevant to the content.
Presenters:
Melanie Allen, Warrensburg-Latham Middle School
Emily Boles, University of Illinois at Springfield
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Web + Log = Blog
Web Logs or "blogs" are web pages that are generated with software that commonly puts postings in reverse chronological order. One common software program to create blogs is http://blogger.com - owned by Google. (a new blog is created every half second)
Sample applications:
- Journal blog - collect and present student journal entries
- Filter blog - post a collection of items such as news stories, or as in this case, technologies
- Critique blog - critique music, works of art, scholarly articles
- Creative writing blog - publish serialized works of fiction, short stories, poetry; perhaps have students tell parts of a story, one writing after another
- Projects - Assign each student a different facet of a topic and have them research, write, edit, and publish their findings. The completed blog becomes a learning resource or study guide for tests.
- Blog of Blogs in Higher Ed
- Blog Search at Google
- Sample Aggregation into Web Pages
Discussion Blog
Big Idea: Create a discussion blog to engage all students rather than the same five kids that volunteer every single day!
Format: The class read Our Town by Thornton Wilder. The last twenty minutes of each class were spent in the computer lab, answering discussion questions. Students not only responded to my questions, but also commented on the responses that other students had posted.
Bonus: Because the students knew that everyone could see their work, they took their time crafting intelligent and well-written responses rather than just scribbling something down. Even the lower-level, less confident students became comfortable with the assignments because they wait a minute to see other students postings for some verification that their ideas were on track.
Format: The class read Our Town by Thornton Wilder. The last twenty minutes of each class were spent in the computer lab, answering discussion questions. Students not only responded to my questions, but also commented on the responses that other students had posted.
Bonus: Because the students knew that everyone could see their work, they took their time crafting intelligent and well-written responses rather than just scribbling something down. Even the lower-level, less confident students became comfortable with the assignments because they wait a minute to see other students postings for some verification that their ideas were on track.
Parent e-Newsletter Blog
Big Idea: Engage the parents!
Format: A blog that I update a couple times a month, more often around major units, tests, or school events.
Bonus: It was easier to access for the parents. And...it saved me time because I could publish in smaller chunks more frequently.
Format: A blog that I update a couple times a month, more often around major units, tests, or school events.
Bonus: It was easier to access for the parents. And...it saved me time because I could publish in smaller chunks more frequently.
Set-up Tips for Blog
Things to Consider:
Because I teach two sections of the same reading class, I set up two different blogs. It gave each class a fresh place to begin each day, and it was super easy to copy and paste the discussion questions.
Explore your settings. I opted not to have the blog available to search engines, but I wanted anonymous posts to be allowed (so that I didn't have to mess with logins. I also chose to have email notification when comments were added, which was an easy way of seeing if someone was commenting at home.
Formatting can become a hassle. At first, I was okay with student's slightly formatting their responses - but it quickly became obnoxious to read the multicolored myriad of bold and italicized fonts. You may want to nix it immediately.
Settings > Comments
If you want to keep your blog from being found by search engines, follow these steps:
Because I teach two sections of the same reading class, I set up two different blogs. It gave each class a fresh place to begin each day, and it was super easy to copy and paste the discussion questions.
Explore your settings. I opted not to have the blog available to search engines, but I wanted anonymous posts to be allowed (so that I didn't have to mess with logins. I also chose to have email notification when comments were added, which was an easy way of seeing if someone was commenting at home.
Formatting can become a hassle. At first, I was okay with student's slightly formatting their responses - but it quickly became obnoxious to read the multicolored myriad of bold and italicized fonts. You may want to nix it immediately.
Settings > Comments
- Who can comment?
Anyone - Your students can post comments and just sign their first name. No account set-up is required.
Only Members of This Blog - You can create Gmail accounts for each each student, using pseudonyms, and have them log in to post. With this set-up, - Show word verification for comments?
Yes - Prevents non-humans from posting comments to the blog.
- Blog Readers
Anybody - allows students to post without creating accounts.
If you want to keep your blog from being found by search engines, follow these steps:
- Add your blog to our listings? - No.
- Let search engines find your blog? - No.
Wiki - Quick Collaborative Writing Environment
Wiki literally means "fast" in Hawaiian. It is one of the most versatile Web 2.0 applications.
* Type of web site
* Multiple people can easily add, remove, or edit the content
* Uses versioning to track changes
* Some require registration or a password for editing
* Editing can be done through simplified HTML markup language or a WYSIWYG editor
* Nice list of educational uses of wikis is hosted by Wikispaces
* Largest and best-known wiki is Wikipedia
* An edited and reviewed version of Wikipedia is emerging at Citizendium
Wiki uses:
* Collaborate with colleagues on professional projects
* Group projects, essays and reports
* Space for free writing or journaling
* Share resources – web sites, annotated bibliographies, models for assignments
*Students work collaboratively to create a compendium of terms and concepts for the course to use as a study guide
* Type of web site
* Multiple people can easily add, remove, or edit the content
* Uses versioning to track changes
* Some require registration or a password for editing
* Editing can be done through simplified HTML markup language or a WYSIWYG editor
* Nice list of educational uses of wikis is hosted by Wikispaces
* Largest and best-known wiki is Wikipedia
* An edited and reviewed version of Wikipedia is emerging at Citizendium
Wiki uses:
* Collaborate with colleagues on professional projects
* Group projects, essays and reports
* Space for free writing or journaling
* Share resources – web sites, annotated bibliographies, models for assignments
*Students work collaboratively to create a compendium of terms and concepts for the course to use as a study guide
Literature Circle Wikis
Big Idea: For a literature circle project, students read one of three novels (Esperanza Rising, The Giver or A Mango Shaped Space) and then created a wiki about their book. Each group covered character analysis, major themes, vocabulary, and author information.
Format: Over the course of several weeks, student constructed their groups wiki and wrote the content.
Bonus: Students really enjoyed the creative outlet and getting to create "real" web content that they could view from home.
Students were fans of the group work with accountability. Because students signed their name at the bottom of the pages they created, I could tell who did what and grade accordingly. It improved all the students work.
Format: Over the course of several weeks, student constructed their groups wiki and wrote the content.
Bonus: Students really enjoyed the creative outlet and getting to create "real" web content that they could view from home.
Students were fans of the group work with accountability. Because students signed their name at the bottom of the pages they created, I could tell who did what and grade accordingly. It improved all the students work.
Club Wiki
Big Idea: The National Junior Honor Society will track their community service projects and volunteer sign-up sheets so that they can be responsible for planning their events.
Format: I created a wiki and let them have at it! The NJHS members are my former students who have some wiki experience already.
Bonus: Real online content without the red tape.
Format: I created a wiki and let them have at it! The NJHS members are my former students who have some wiki experience already.
Bonus: Real online content without the red tape.
Set-up Tips for a Wiki
Using a wiki with students just got easier! PBWiki recently added a new feature specifically for educators that lets you create logins for students without email addresses. Much better than wasting your time creating dummy email accounts for kids :)
I created three separate wikis for the three different lit circle novels. I was responsible for the main wiki page and created a home page for each group. After students were familiar with the wiki process, they linked all their created pages to their group's home page.
If you use one wiki for multiple groups, be careful about naming pages! I made students name all pages with the title PLUS their group number to keep from overwriting another group's work.
I also had each student put their first name at the bottom of any page they created, so that I could accurately tell who was responsible for what work. Students loved that they - and not the slacker kid in their group - got credit for the extras that they did. With the new account creation features of PBWiki, the versioning capability (a.k.a. page editing history) will also let you see which kids edited which pages and how extensive their changes were.
I created three separate wikis for the three different lit circle novels. I was responsible for the main wiki page and created a home page for each group. After students were familiar with the wiki process, they linked all their created pages to their group's home page.
If you use one wiki for multiple groups, be careful about naming pages! I made students name all pages with the title PLUS their group number to keep from overwriting another group's work.
I also had each student put their first name at the bottom of any page they created, so that I could accurately tell who was responsible for what work. Students loved that they - and not the slacker kid in their group - got credit for the extras that they did. With the new account creation features of PBWiki, the versioning capability (a.k.a. page editing history) will also let you see which kids edited which pages and how extensive their changes were.
Pod What?
Podcasting is revolutionizing the media. Initially growing out of audio blogs - podcasts have evolved over the past four years to become enhanced podcasting with graphics, chapters, and video! Distributed via RSS updates, the technology does not require an iPod - in fact many listen/view podcasts on their desktop and laptop computers.
- UIS iTunes U -- podcasting resources and links.
- Podomatic -- provides free online creation and hosting of up to 250 MB
- The Freesound Project -- Part of Creative Commons; allows use of sounds for podcasting for education
- Tutorial on Finding Free Podcasts on iTunes
- Listen to newscasts, audio books, class lectures
- Some schools record class projects as podcasts and publish them for parents to enjoy!
- One of my favorite sites -- http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/
Grammar Rocks! Audio Recordings
Big Idea:
Students are bored by grammar, but the language arts curriculum requires them to know all of the parts of speech. As a part of our big cumulative review of the parts of speech, we wrote songs.
Format: Students got into small groups and were assigned a particular part of speech. They chose the genre and song they wished to parody. Within their song, they needed to include definition, examples, and memory helpers. After they wrote their song, they also planned a performance with costumes and choreography.
Bonus: The notion of listening to themselves on their iPods was mind-blowing.
One issue: Publishing. I wanted to share the results with the students, but parents got very nervous when students implied that I was putting their work on YouTube.
For next time: Opt-out permission from parents.
Students are bored by grammar, but the language arts curriculum requires them to know all of the parts of speech. As a part of our big cumulative review of the parts of speech, we wrote songs.
Format: Students got into small groups and were assigned a particular part of speech. They chose the genre and song they wished to parody. Within their song, they needed to include definition, examples, and memory helpers. After they wrote their song, they also planned a performance with costumes and choreography.
Bonus: The notion of listening to themselves on their iPods was mind-blowing.
One issue: Publishing. I wanted to share the results with the students, but parents got very nervous when students implied that I was putting their work on YouTube.
For next time: Opt-out permission from parents.
Set-up Tips for Podcasts
Podcasting is easy with Audacity, a free sound recorder/editor, and a $5-10 microphone from a discount department store. You can also use an iPod with microphone if you have access to one.
The link above has detailed instructions for recording and editing your podcasts.
The link above has detailed instructions for recording and editing your podcasts.
- Label podcasts with names of songs or topics, not names. This way no one knows who recorded them, except the kids and their parents.
- Use podsafe music if you use music at all.
Internet Archive's Open Source Audio | Podshow | PodsafeAudio | GarageBand | PodcastAlley | Peoplesound - Have students perform for the class and record at a separate time when they can stand still and stay near the microphone.
- Consider opt-out permission slips.
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