11 Tools Reflections

After going through and reflecting back on these new tools, I can envision my classroom environment transformed to emphasize the availability of technology. My goal will be to activate my students' excitement & anticipation of a year full of possibilities for exploration, learning, & confidence. There's nothing like technology to enhance a child's imagination, creativity, & independence. I've witnessed this in my own granddaughter's approach to exploring her favorite website--pbskids.org.

I am especially excited about using video resources and digital storytelling for both presenting information embedded in fipchart lessons & allowing students to create products to illustrate their own learning as closure activities. In addition, the mobile apps will be invaluable in motivating students & providing opportunities to practice and solidify skills in small group, independent practice, & centers.

Tool #11-Digital Citizenship

The topic of Digital Citizenship is by far the most important information that we can teach our students about technology. I really like how the Digiteen2008 Blog treated the topic of internet safety, especially regarding privacy of personal information:

"You should always remember to never give out your personal information to strangers. If a sexual predator asks you personal things just stop, block, and tell. This means to stop talking to them, block them from talking to you, and tell a guardian about your specific situation."

I will definitely teach the stop, block, & tell method of safety. In addition, the importance of only going to sites approved by parents & teachers, & the importance of copyright adherence are topics I feel it is important to teach our students. I want my students to be proud of what they create & produce and that they should acknowledge other students' work. Even very young students can understand those concepts. Students are never too young to learn that personal product creativity is a right & the responsibility that comes with being a good digital citizen in protecting that right.

Regarding how I would teach Digital Citizenship, I would utilize resources provided by the district, possibly as part of an age-appropriate flipchart. I would follow this up with practice & reinforcement through pair-share or role-play & a closure of creating a Class Chart of what a good digital citizen LOOKS LIKE/ SOUNDS LIKE/FEELS LIKE.

Tool #10-Mobile Apps

I have an iPhone and have used apps to entertain my 31/2 year-old granddaughter, Hannah. She's become an expert on many of them. For this post, I reviewed some apps by downloading to my iPhone. I particularly liked Read Me Stories, ABC Phonics, Kids Math Ace, Math Drills Lite, among others. It's obvious that these will be invaluable resources for our students during center time and especially for Language of the Day activities as most of them are in English. Math activities will undoubtedly enhance math facts.

One potential drawback may be that some of these "free" apps include "Buy Full Version" (paid) buttons that students may try to purchase. I believe that if we are able to set up free school accounts, these downloads may be blocked. I am very excited for our students about these resources.

Tool #9- Jing & Skype

I think teachers can use Jing to facilitate classroom management, cooperative learning, & differentiation. Lessons and activities can be recorded and placed in centers for children & can be revisited as needed. Students can be taught to record what they have learned about a topic & can be used as a record of their learning; or groups of students can create a presentation of a particular topic which can then be shared in clas or in a class blog. Other messages, instructions, etc. can be available when teacher is out & would be very useful for substitutes.

Skype provides for endless possibilities to enhance student's learning and active participation through audio and video conferencing with experts, as well as students from different parts of the world. Instead of having penpals, we can establish 'webpals' enabling our students to experience first-hand different cultures.

Tool 8 Video Resources

Here is a really cute Spanish video about the sun and moon along with the concept of time, including days of the week on a calendar. Below is a video on counting to 10. In addition to including such videos on our flipchart lessons; such videos can hopefully be available to our students on the itouches and ipads to enjoy over and over again.

Tool 7-Photo Story

OMG!! This took a long time, mostly because finding the pictures and, especially, the music was extremely time-consuming. Most of the pictures are from the FOSS Landforms module website & appear to be freeware, the others noted from NASA also appear to be free. The music was from the FreePlayMusic site. I have made movies using Windows MovieMaker & I will admit that PhotoStory is somewhat more user-friendly.

I'm confindent that our students will enjoy creating PhotoStories of what they learn as well as creative writing using their own drawings. Unlike myself, they will most likely become experts in no time.

Tool 6-Wikis 'r' Us

Wikis sound like an exciting, engaging, collaborative way for students to learn. They can create all kinds of lists--content word walls, vocabulary, parts of speech, rhyming, synonyms, antonyms, etc.--as a class, in teams, or individually. Other ideas can be Reading Response Wikis, class Content, Test Review or End of Unit Wikis, KWL Wikis, and Book Review Wikis. Finally, what a great motivating tool for students' journaling & development of writing and editing skills.

As a team and/or department, wikis would really help to keep us updated & facilitate sharing of resources & planning ideas. I would consider bookmarking or use Google Reader--whichever one is updated automatically--for easy access. I'll have to become a little more familiar with these resources to decide which works best for me. There's still so much to learn!