You’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. I must confess that I did when I saw the picture of the digital camera on the cover of Leading 21st Century Schools (Schrum & Levin, 2009). My husband gave a digital camera to me a few years back as a gift. It’s kind of old now; it has a cable for downloading instead of a nifty USB drive. But it works great, and I use it every time students create physical models or illustrations. So when I saw the cover of our book, I said to myself, “This book looks like I’m going to like it!”
When I read Chapter 3, I decided I’d try as many of the new tools for collaboration, communication and creation as I could. Here are a few highlights.
BLOGS
Creating this blog has been interesting. Just trying to upload the MP4 of the Windows Movie Maker project was a learning experience in and of itself. It’s also really interesting to look at all the blogs made by our class participants. Even though we are completing the same assignment, it’s fascinating to see how differently we all go about it with personalities shining through with choices of backgrounds, widgets, etc. I do wish I had more time to read everything each person posts.
PODCASTS
Last semester I bought a Sony digital recorder to use in a graduate course. As soon as I saw how easy it was to upload MP3s (with the nifty USB drive that flips out), I decided to start using it in class. After the school principal approved the concept of SciPods, I created a permission letter for students to take home to ask parents/guardians to allow them to participate in this voluntary activity. Almost everyone was granted permission. Science Terms-to-Learn straight from the textbook are recorded by students and uploaded by me onto my teacher page. Everyone can use them to study for vocabulary quizzes, even those who did not record them. The Scipods are for all students. I know they are using them as indicated by the number of hits that page gets, and they appear to get a real kick out of recording them. The real indicator of success is increase in student performance. Grades on vocab quizzes are at an all-time high. Parents know about the Terms-to-Learn being on line. It really makes kids accountable. Plus student say they’re fun to make and use!
GOOGLE DOCS
I used Google Docs for the first time this semester. It’s awesome! For a group grad project, four of us met on Google Docs and hammered out a quality document in about an hour. It was highly efficient. The second time, a group of three met and did the same. If you haven’t explored Google Docs yet, give it a shot!
SURVEYS
I used Qualtrics for the first time too. It was very user friendly and intuitive. The best part was that it created summaries of survey results in multiple formats: Word, Excel and pdf.
Although it’s initially time consuming to get acquainted with all these tools, it’s definitely worth the investment. The trick is, for me, to explore a little at a time and try to figure out how to apply each new tool. Before I know it, the ones that are really useful, just sort of become part of the daily routine. It’s cool. Two of the most useful tools I’ve acquired this semester are creating screencasts and making videos using Animoto, both of which were introduced to me during this class. Thank you all for sharing in Thinkfinity!!
Middle School Physical Science Models of Atoms Using Animoto
(Examples of Models of DNA--Life Science in Previous Blog)
Middle School Physical Science Models of Atoms Using Animoto
(Examples of Models of DNA--Life Science in Previous Blog)
Animoto seems like a really nice way to showcase student work, especially when it is put to contemporary music that students like. It can be time consuming to try and figure out some of the new tools, and sometimes there are multiple tools that, in the end, accomplish the same thing. As you pointed out, it is most important to think about how and why you want to incorporate it into your teaching. Since the students seem to be doing well from the Scipods, you can see that it is a tool that impacts student learning. If the technology can not help you to accomplish that, or you can't imagine how it could be used in your teaching, than those are the tools that get filtered out. Sometimes once a teacher shares how the tools can be incorporated, other teachers can get ideas too. This is why sharing is so important. I think we have all learned a lot from the different blogs!
ReplyDeleteSharing is really important. I've discovered a number of tools that have already enriched my lessons. Mary, thank you for coordinating our efforts!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your blog and reading about the ways you used different tools we learned about. It is wonderful that you decided to try to use as many tools as you can. I think that is really the best way to learn about these technologies.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is great that the students love making and listening to podcasts.
Also, I love google docs and many other google tools as well. Google Docs is great for collaboration because groups can work on the project all at once while on different computers in the classroom or even while at home. Also, I love that teachers can comment on students work in Google Docs. Lastly, lately, I have been using Google to create my own websites. I love how it is so easy to use, and a user can create really professional looking sites with the click of a button.
Yes, they really look professional! I'm glad one of the requirements for Introduction to Teaching with Digital Tools was to create a blog because I didn't even know this was a free feature on Google! Now I try to take a few minutes, whenever I can, just to "click around" and explore what's available. And these tools are so much easier than I thought they would be! :)
ReplyDeleteI have also been using google docs this semester and find it quite useful, but there is still lots of room for improvement. Earlier in the semester I made a survey with google forms that put the results automatically a spreadsheet on google docs. It seemed like a great way for kids to turn in homework online or do the beginning of the year survey to get the students information.
ReplyDeleteYou said that almost all the students got permission to participate in the scipods, so what did you do with the students that did not?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteAbout two students recorded the SciPods on a given day. Each student stepped out into the hall with his/her textbook and my recorder to create the podcast, while the rest of the class and I continued to work. (Students said they felt less self-conscious when they did the recording without everyone watching!) When he/she was done, I listened to the recording as the class worked. If the recording had no errors and sounded fine, I uploaded it within minutes and the entire class listened to it. If not, I gave the speaker feedback. He/she tried again that period or the next day. It wasn't like everyone except those who got permission worked on SciPods at once and left the others out. It takes quite a while for everyone who got permission to get a turn. That works out well because they learn which techniques make better podcasts: Speak slowly, avoid mumbling, ask for the pronunciation of unfamiliar words, practice a few times before recording, etc.