Thing 23

Wow! This experience has truly opened my eyes to the digital world and the potential that Web 2.0 tools can play in helping educators reach all learners. The possibilities are endless. Each of the "things" we learned about holds the possibility of helping teachers and students organize information, yet many empower their users by allowing them the freedom to express themselves within their presentation or creation.

No longer am I afraid to take the first step. I am convinced that we must be utilizing these tools with our learners regularly. If we are not, we may be denying them opportunities for learning. We cannot teach in a box. We need to work together to share information, collaborate to create and most importantly, help one another along the way. These tools may scare some people, yet there's really nothing to be afraid of. The more we work to incorporate these tools into our teaching and allow students to utilize them in their learning, the more confident we will all become making it easier to accept and embrace change as it naturally occurs. We will look forward to celebrating the new discoveries and the new "things" as they become available.

Teaching today offers us so many more opportunities to reach our learners. I am looking forward to embracing my new found skills, incorporating my learning into my teaching and sharing with my colleagues and my students. I have a feeling this is start of many very exciting school days ahead! I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to take part in this amazing adventure!

Thing 22

This was a fun "thing"! It took a little creativity and trial and error on my part, but I enjoyed the learning process and can see many, many possibilities in making what I started "grow" throughout the school year. I'm excited to share this idea with my students and look forward to what they think we can do to build our wiki together. They never cease to amaze me with their incredible ideas! My efforts are a simple start, but the seed has been planted and together, with my learners, I hope to watch our wiki develop over time. I work with a population of students who thrive on challenges. I can really see this type of opportunity exciting so many of them as learners. It makes me very excited to know that I can now offer them this "thing" as a medium to work together to create and show what they know. Powerful stuff! Take a peek at my start here: https://explorewithus.wikispaces.com/

Thing 21

Terri says it best for both of us on this "thing". I was one of her collaborating companions on our "Spice it Up a Notch" wiki. We were very excited to work on this project with many of our fourth grade students across the district reading different Nutmeg nominee books. It was a little tricky at first getting started. We needed permission from administration and the parents of students participating in the wiki project. We created a letter explaining what a wiki was and told about the "Spice it Up a Notch" wiki created by teachers at RESC. Once permission was granted, we obtained usernames and passwords for our students and explained that they could only post to the wiki AFTER they had conferenced with at least one peer AND had their work approved by a teacher. This helped us tremendously. The quality of the work our students were posting was excellent in comparison to many of the other wiki users. Unfortunately this was a bit of a downfall at first. Our students were a little disappointed with some of the posting that they came across. On the other hand, they were made to feel pretty proud of their "stand out" work. One way to combat this problem may be to try and set up a wiki and invite users to contribute. This way you know everyone who is participating and they would all have to meet your wiki posting expectations. This is something that could be really fun as a teacher who works throughout the district. It would give students across the district opportunities to collaborate with one another on common topics. Great possibilities!

Thing 20

Ebooks are fun. To me though, nothing beats a real book. I love tossing whatever it is I'm currently reading into my beach bag on a moment's notice during the summer. I don't have to worry about electricity or sand. With ebooks however, the possibilities are vast and right at my fingertips when I have a computer available. I can see ways in which ebooks could help our students who may struggle with reading. They could have the text read to them and learn or find as much enjoyment from the book as someone who could easily read it. No more barriers. The interactivity of many ebooks makes using them exciting too. I liked listening to excerpts of Mozart's music in the British Library online gallery. I was also able to look up words and leaf through the ebook at my own pace. These features make it very attractive.

I was unable to access the NHS collection of ebooks because I do not have a username and password, however I was able to access many ebooks that John Paterson and Martin Kellogg schools have available. It's nice to see these collections growing year after year.

Thing 19

I created a brief tutorial for students to learn about a web site that we use for a scavenger hunt project that we do at the end of our study about the Iditarod. There are two buttons at the top of the page that have many useful links to assist students in finding the answers to their scavenger hunt questions. The brief tutorial will familiarize the students with the web site and show them how to navigate their way through it.

Thing 18

Podcasting allows learning to be portable and readily available which is always fun. One podcast that I subscribed to is edutopia. This selection of podcasts has to do with technology. I like how easily the topics are organized and each "show" is rated by listeners. I really like the idea of students podcasting a news show about their school. We have had some fourth graders create and run a news program at John Paterson that has been broadcast "live" via our media distribution system. It would be fun to try this concept only creating and using a podcast as our medium for sharing.

Thing 17

Foot Notes

View more presentations from Melanie Kahl.

I have seen this presentation before and was so happy to come upon it again today. To me, it is inspirational. It makes me think of how important it is to allow creativity to be part of our lives, to appreciate the creations of others and to not be afraid to take risks.

Slideshare is a wonderful tool to use in and out of our classrooms. We can so easily search for presentations and tailor them to fit our needs and the needs of our students. This would be a great resource for us to utilize with students to share what they've learned about a particular topic. They could work independently or collaboratively to create their projects. Teachers could also post presentations "as is" from slideshare to their classroom blogs or post altered presentations for all to see at home or in school.